Doctors and research PhD, in general, would benefit from being able to program as well, and indeed I believe a very large number of them do.

And I don't think that learning to code is equivalent to working professionally as a programmer. The same way as learning how to read and write is different than being a writer or a poet, and yet no one argue about the importance of being literate.

And yes, even if you only know how to use VBA to summarize your research results, it'd still probably worth it.