Mystery fiction and being a better internist

As a child, mystery fiction captivated me.  Probably the Bobbsey Twins, then the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew started the passion.  I remember the TV show Perry Mason, which led me to reading books from the Earl Stanley Gardner series.  Lt. Columbo captivated me.  Discovering Sherlock Holmes was an epiphany.  And throughout my life, I love finding great new mystery authors. I suspect that my love of mystery fiction made my choice of internal medicine inevitable.  While our field has many dimensions, the core of being a good internist is accurate diagnosis.  While sometimes diagnosis is straightforward, often the patient’s story unfolds much like a mystery novel. Clinical reasoning has attracted many internists.  The field of cognitive psychology helps us understand the road to excellence and the pitfalls along the way. But recently I have paid much attention to the brilliance of mystery fiction writers.  Literature (and yes the mystery genre is literature) often gives insights into the human condition.  As I read mysteries or watch mystery TV or film, I often see parallels to our field.  Here are a few examples: “The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.” ? Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles While we often see the patient, our training should teach us to really observe. “I’ve learned over the years that sometimes if you ask the same question more than once you get different responses.” ? Michael Co...
Source: DB's Medical Rants - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Tags: Medical Rants Source Type: blogs