Staying within the "standard of care" basically immunizes MDs from malpractice liability. They are the only profession that has such a carve out. Other professions and industries have to live by a reasonableness standard and cannot hide behind "everyone else does it this way" as a defense.
Thus, MDs are disincentivized from being creative or innovative outside of pure research settings.
MDs participate in clinical trials all the time. They are free to participate in advancing therapies that they believe in if they have a sufficient patient cohort and resources to test their hypothesis.
Thus, MDs are disincentivized from being creative or innovative outside of pure research settings.