The evolution of a doctor

This short piece of creative writing got me shortlisted for the role of editor of the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine. Of course at the time, I had no idea what an editor really did!

The ability to understand signs and symptoms is an important skill as a doctor. It is something that takes years to develop and is always undergoing evolution in light of new experiences.

Once in a while, more often than night deep into the night, you will be presented with a patient who has a myriad of strange signs and symptoms. It will seem like you will never piece it altogether, like you will never get to the bottom of the mystery laid out before you. You may feel like natural selection is working against you. In time, this will allow for a greater evolution of your diagnostic toolkit.

At such times, spare a thought for one of the fathers of the theory of evolution, Russell Wallace. He spent years travelling, watching, reading, studying, piecing it altogether; before finally pioneering the theory of evolution in his book the Malay Archipelago.  However, he was ultimately overshadowed by his more famous friend Charles Darwin, with The Origin of Species.