Honestly, I knew. And I’m still reeling a bit.
The intent was to set down what I already understood about the entities involved in western medicine, from practice to research and learning. I just wanted to check on gaps, organize an approach, start laying out how to develop the stories of where I thought the big mismatches and miscommunications where emerging. I was checking my assumptions, looking for cognitive bias and presuppositions that weren’t aligned with reality.
Instead, I got a new lens of reality.
This model stops at the practice. It doesn’t get into the lenses/parts that I consider juicy — the interactions that are mismatched, misunderstood, heightened, etc., that tend to bog down information transfer.
I check my assumptions. This is why. I’m used to pivoting; yet this one, in particular, I’m needing to take a moment. I didn’t consider this a part of what we need to navigate as a society; forces implied (not annotated) with in, absolutely. But not this itself. The shear weight of all those people impressing decisions — some by swaying, some by command — to land their way before the first word is exchange between provider and patient is mind boggling. The implication that there were so many bad actors that all these structures had to be created is heartbreaking.