June 2023 St. Mary’s CMO Note: Medicine as Craft, Art, and Profession

 Here is how I describe it:

The Craft of Medicine

The Craft of Medicine revolves around the individual physician/APP placing an individual patient’s healthcare needs above all else. In doing so, we draw on extensive clinical knowledge gained through formal education & experience. We craft a unique and customized diagnostic and treatment regimen to produce the best result possible for each patient.

The Art of Medicine

Physicians and APPs intuitively know the right/ideal/best course to follow when diagnosing and treating a patient. We follow our gut, supported by practical reasoning and wisdom based partly on science but mainly on experience and judgment.

In both the Craft and the Art of Medicine, healthcare quality arises from personal competence and experience. If so, do errors represent professional incompetence (aka negligence)?

The Profession of Medicine

When we practice the Profession of Medicine, we work in multidisciplinary teams. We are groups of peers treating similar patients in a shared setting. We plan coordinated care delivery processes, which individual physicians/APPs adapt to specific patient needs. In doing so, we produce better outcomes for entire populations of patients. We focus on eliminating waste, reducing unnecessary cost, and enabling all team members to work at the top of their scope/license. We put caring professions back in control of care delivery. This becomes the foundation for useful shared electronic data (an important next step in continuous quality improvement).