What Doctors Don't Know

What Doctors Don't Know - The New York Review of Books:
Lewis Thomas 1987 review in the New York Review of Books of Becoming a Doctor: A Journey of Initiation in Medical School by Melvin Konner MD. (Viking/Elisabeth Sifton Books)


"Early on in this year, Konner began to encounter the aphorisms on which the practice of medicine has long been based. Unlike aphorisms in general, these nuggets of perceived wisdom are made up anew by each generation, but a few of them have old histories. The best of these, which Konner recognizes for its immense importance, is a short sequence of prescriptions given to him by one of his teachers:

'If it's working, keep doing it.'

'If it's not working, stop doing it.'

'If you don't know what to do, don't do anything.'

The third of these, Konner says he later realized, is 'the most difficult one by far, the one least adhered to in common medical practice, and beyond a doubt the most important.'"