Patients Are a Virtue

Patients Are a VirtueIn three decades of medical practice, Brian T. Maurer has found his patients to be virtuous most of the timevirtuous in the sense that they have taught him much of what he has learned about the art of medicine. Once I would have been ecstatic in diagnosing such a condition. My colleagues would have clapped me on the shoulder. "Nice pick up!" they wouldve said. Some might have turned away, jealous at not having had the chance to step briefly into the

In three decades of medical practice, Brian T. Maurer has found his patients to be virtuous most of the timeÑvirtuous in the sense that they have taught him much of what he has learned about the art of medicine.

Once I would have been ecstatic in diagnosing such a condition. My colleagues would have clapped me on the shoulder. "Nice pick up!" they wouldÕve said. Some might have turned away, jealous at not having had the chance to step briefly into the limelight.

But now, after 27 years of practice, having raised four children of my own, I know that in pediatrics every diagnostic coup translates into a potential tragedy for a parent. Instead of that surge of pride, I feel something I canÕt quite put my finger onÑcall it humility perhaps. Or call it grace.

These fifty-seven clinical tales in the art medicine evoke what the great Canadian physician and humanist Sir William Osler referred to as the true poetry of lifeÑthe poetry of the commonplace.