Do you practise like an art restorer, or a composer?
We doctors are often too fixated on process rather than results, argues Dr Hans Duvefelt
We do a lot of things in our head in this business. Once a patient reports a symptom, we mentally run down lists of related follow-up questions, possible diagnoses, similar cases we have seen.
All this happens faster than we could ever describe in words (let alone type).
And, just like in maths class, we are constantly reminded that it doesn’t matter if we have the right answer if we can’t describe how we got there.
So the ninth doctor who observes a little girl with deteriorating neurologic functioning and after less than 10 minutes says “your child has Rett syndrome” could theoretically get paid less than the previous eight doctors whose explorations meandered for over an hour before they admitted they didn’t know what was going on.
