As medical professionals, it is tempting to cultivate a razor-sharp focus on symptoms and diagnoses. Robby helped me realize our former approach was like a racehorse with blinders: fast, but risking missing something important.

Brian R. Smith recalls an encounter with a special patient that made him think about restructuring visits to better identify patients' crucial personal life events.

The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the March 2023 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.