Intelligence as a professional and significant quality of a physician

The article characterizes clinical thinking, indicates an increase in the relevance of this phenomenon in the diversity of modern diagnosis and treatment technologies. The study differentiates the role of thinking and intelligence in the formation of professional thinking of a physician and describes the manifestation of these mental categories in clinical practice. The significance of intelligence for a clinician is demonstrated. The article provides the results of the study on medical students’ intelligence that reveals an intermediate level of general mental ability for the majority of future physicians. Based on the analysis of empirical data, it is assumed that to stop the decrease in IQ level it is necessary to provide means for the development of students’ general mental ability during vocational training and introduce the pedagogical and psychological selection of entrants to higher medical educational institutions.