The Wakley Prize, 2013: true stories

Abstract

What does today's doctor have in common with his or her forebears? The tools of the trade have changed. The expectations of the patient have changed. Even the social position of the doctor has changed. There is perhaps only one constant thread over the centuries of medical practice, and it is this: doctors deal in stories. The doctor puts together a patient's version of events, the objective signs of disease, and his or her own knowledge to construct a narrative. From this first story, others soon follow—the choice of treatment, the relationship between physician and patient, the advances, and the setbacks. The science with which the doctor started her journey might have been superseded or forgotten at the end of her career. The stories, however, remain. As Oliver Sacks said in a recent interview with The Lancet, “Certainly when I look back on my own medical student days in the 1950s, I can hardly remember any of the lectures that were given, but I do remember all of the patients.”