I was recently unwell enough to come to the attention of four different specialists, and because my presentation was a bit of a zebra, I had the opportunity to observe our specialist colleagues thinking on their feet.  

I have great respect for their expertise, years of training and dedication. They were thorough, thoughtful and communicated their rationale with great empathy and clarity.  

But by the third specialist review I noticed a repeating pattern. 

Their thought processes were different from those of a GP. They needed to shrink the problem, compress it into a channel they knew how to paddle.