is there anything special i have to do for the master doctor? i have kiki set to healing, and she's been studying it since she was 14. she's now 37 and still is only an adept healer.

Nope, some just pick it up faster than others. I had one I set on healing (she was born an apprentice healer) and left alone and she was mastered out on healing at 18. Just take her to the cactus a lot and to the other plants, too, and hopefully she'll improve.

i have one that likes medicine...picked up the skill quick

And, of course, use her to heal any sick villagers ... Every time she heals she gains a little more experience.

I would like to add to this... I don't know if this is common knowledge but I found this out by accident. If you have a bunch of villagers that have passed on, and there are little bodies in the center of the village take one of your villagers and quickly move them all around the skeletons and sometimes it will say in the action line that they are embracing which basically means nothing but every once in a while you will find that the villager you are carrying around will improve at healing. I don't know if this is 100% true but if a Dr. dies it seems more likely that this is the case that you will pick up healing skill by placing the villager on top of the doctor's corpse. I know this sounds morbid but it really does work. If anyone else has done this please post here and let me know ok? If you have your cemetary and the villagers are burying them you will have to work fast to move as many villagers to that magic area as possible and they increase thier healing skills by quite a large margin. I always find boy children and they become apprentice doctors right away. I always label these villagers with MD after their names so I can pick them out quickly. No offense against the women but I prefer men healers because I dont think that the women can heal when nursing so it just makes more sense to use the guys. Next time you have a lot of villagers that have passed on, try this and you will see that it usually works. Not always but usually. Good luck and let me know if it works for anyone out there!