Of Sysophis and What Became of Him

Today, after reading and typing for nearly eight hours, I finished 284 names out of 636.

The reason this task is taking so long is because the case studies are written in a letter format. Each doctor has their own style of writing, and some are easier to understand than others. Additionally, there does not seem to be any standard for writing the case studies, except for a loose structure. One doctor may put the patients' diagnoses in the very last sentence of the letter; another may include it in a massive paragraph at the beginning; and yet still some will never explicitly state the diagnosis, but rather allude to it throughout the document. Additionally, some doctors clearly label the sections of the information (Assessment, Lab Work, etc.), some doctors do not label the sections, but only space them out into paragraphs, and still, most annoyingly, some doctors include the entirety of the information in one giant page-long paragraph.

The result is that skimming the studies for a diagnosis is not possible, because it is hard to know where it is located. Additionally, because a case study is written each time a patient meets with an MD, not all of the case studies contain explicit diagnoses or plans of attack. Some are follow ups, and some are referrals to other departments in the hospital if the MD feels the case no longer pertains to their speciality. This means that I often have to read multiple, if not all, case studies to discern the diagnosis.

Now, to the doctors' credit, the letter system is extremely efficient inside the hospital. The studies are easy to understand for the most part, and it is easy to see what the patient came in for from each one. It is also obvious that anyone with a degree in medicine would be able to understand the case studies. I think the hospital uses the letter system because it fits their patients best. It would be impossible and very inefficient to have the doctors fill out a set spreadsheet with all the patients information, because some patients simply do not fit into any mold. A lot of them suffer from problems that are interrelated amongst departments, and a "plug and chug" system would simply not be able to capture it.

So, the system works great, if your a doctor, and, well, educated. The biggest hurdle I am having to overcome is my ignorance. To begin with, I found out today that I would have to do some major personal research if I want to be able to stop googling every diagnosis I read to find out if it is a liver disease.

If this experience teaches me only one thing, it is that education is GOOD, and lack of it is utterly horrible. I want to be the person that can say, "Chron's Disease affects the intestines, and X% of the population has it," without having to look it up. Additionally, it is clear that even with an introductory level gastro course, I would be able to fly through these documents. The documents are not hard to understand, I simply lack the knowledge to process the most important part of the information.

Oh, the woes of a high school degree.