What do doctors actually do? Are they Sherlockian detectives, hunting down obscure clues to solve intractable cases? Are they virtuosic experts, training for half a lifetime to bring the latest science to bear to cure disease? Or are they clerks, whose main job is to collect and enter data into the electronic health record? In this episode, Adam is joined by medical and cultural historians Lakshmi Krishnan and Mike Neuss to discuss the stories we tell about our own work – and how this often conflicts with the realities of clinical practice.

Sources:

• Krishnan L, Neuss M. Virtuosic craft or clerical labour: the rise of the electronic health record and challenges to physicians’ professional identity (1950-2022). Med Humanit. 2022 Oct 7:medhum-2022-012404. doi: 10.1136/medhum-2022-012404. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36207060.