Art of Medicine
Jul 2020
Abstract
This illustration is a humorous take on experts' disagreement about the care of a patient. Breaking the deadlock requires much effort, and a focus on the patient can restore common ground. Patients should always be the center of our care universe.
Figure. Team-Centric Care?
Media
Sketched on Paper for iPad and finished using Corel Paintshop.
Caption
Despite advances in diagnostic capability, best next steps are not always clear, and clinician-experts don’t always agree about the course a patient’s care should take. When deadlocked, specialists aren’t always all that helpful to a patient and her primary care clinician. Breaking deadlock in a way that’s professional, collegial, and keeps a patient’s well-being as a goal held in common requires much effort. This comic offers a foil to our expectation that clinician-experts resolve disagreements using reason and evidence and reminds us that patients should always be the center of our care universe.
