Expertise Is The Mantra Of Modern Medicine.

We Yearn For Frictionless, Technological Solutions. But People Talking To People Is Still The Way Norms And Standards Change.

The Possibilities And Probabilities Are All We Have To Work With In Medicine, Though. What We Are Drawn To In This Imperfect Science, What We In Fact Covet In Our Way, Is The Alterable Moment-the Fragile But Crystalline Opportunity For One's Know-how, Ability, Or Just Gut Instinct To Change The Course Of Another's Life For The Better.

My Own Son Has A Congenital Heart Condition, Where His Life Was Saved By A Cardiac Surgeon Stepping In At 11 Days Of Life To Save His Life. But He Is Now 21 Years Old Because Of Constant Monitoring And Working With Him With A Primary Care Physician. That's The Only Reason Now That He's Getting To Live A Long And Healthy Life. That's What We're Not Rewarding. They Don't Have The Kind Of Resources And Commitment That We Are Giving To People Like Me. I Have Millions Of Dollars Of Equipment Available To Me When I Go To Work Every Day In An Operating Room.

In Psychology, There's Something Called The Broken-leg Problem. A Statistical Formula May Be Highly Successful In Predicting Whether Or Not A Person Will Go To A Movie In The Next Week. But Someone Who Knows That This Person Is Laid Up With A Broken Leg Will Beat The Formula. No Formula Can Take Into Account The Infinite Range Of Such Exceptional Events.

We Recruit For Attitude And Train For Skill.