Fan Geng shuffled into a small lecture hall, already filled up with the fourteen residents who had been selected from a pool of 100 applicants to attend the course. None of the residents knew the structure of the course other than it being led by their celebrity surgeon, Li Yun.
“Why are you so late?” Wei Bing asked as Fan Geng took a seat next to her.
“Busy!” Fan Geng replied.
Li Yun looked over his phone from the front of the room, 9am. “All right, we will begin.” He walked closer to the center and scanned through the group of fifteen residents. “You all have been selected for one reason, does anyone know what that is?”
Everyone stared at each other and wondered what they all had in common. Not all of them were known for surgery, had high grades, or were considered talented. If they compared themselves to An Luchang or Mi Xuan, it was laughable. At best, they may be at Lui Jing’s standard.
“You have what your attending surgeons considered personality problems,” Li Yun replied.
“What?!” Some of them were surprised, they never thought of themselves as troublemakers.
“What does he mean?” Wei Bing had always been obedient and followed directions, and being called problematic was a surprise to her.
“Your personalities range from being too indecisive to being too arrogant. There are no personality traits that define a surgeon, but all surgeons should know their own strengths and weaknesses. I don’t care if you’re the greatest surgeon in the world, but if you can’t recognize yourself, how are you to recognize others?”
“Put Dr. Li, what does our personality have to do with being a good surgeon?”
“Personalities are 50% of what makes a surgeon. Without personalities, you’re nothing more than a robot. And I can tell you, in the future, if you don’t understand personalities, you will not survive when robots become advanced enough to perform surgery.”
“Dr. Li, isn’t that science fiction?” Some of the residents asked. “Even if robots can perform surgery independently, they still need surgeons to program them.”
“So instead of a surgeon, you want to change your profession to a programmer?” Li Yun asked.
Everyone remained silent.
“For our first lesson, I want everyone to write down what you think of yourself, and then on a separate sheet, write down what you think of the person to your right or in front of you. You have 5 minutes.” Li Yun clicked on his phone’s timer.
As the time quickly wound down, everyone wrote down what they thought about themselves, and then the person in front of them. It took them faster to write about the other person than they did themselves. Li Yun’s phone beeped as soon as the time ran out.
“Qin, you consider yourself to be an intellectual, hardworking, and patient,” Li Yun went down the list of what everyone thought about themselves until Fan Geng. “And Fan Geng, you scribbled a bunch of random routes for a game.”
The residents were surprised by how accurate his guesses were. Some of what he said was a good 80% accurate.
“Dr. Li, how did you figure out what we wrote down?”
“Well, I read most of your profiles when I selected everyone for the class,” said Li Yun. “And it’s written on your faces and expressions. This process is similar to how a detective would solve a case, by looking at everything from every angle.”
“Oh, like that TV show.”
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
Li Yun nodded. “Next question, what is the first step in a physical examination?”
“Physical appearance,” replied a resident. “It’s important to note gender and state of their appearance.”
“But isn’t it flawed to look only at faces?” asked another resident. “Not everyone with dark skin worked outside like a construction worker.”
“Obviously, but that’s when you need to examine other factors,” said Li Yun. “If it’s hereditary, did the person originate from the desert? What sort of ailments are common out in the desert? These are the sorts of things you need to understand. The skin is the first line of defense against viruses and bacteria, so it’s often the first to reveal any problems, along with the tongue. If someone eats something they are allergic to, the tongue and throat are usually the first to react.”
“Doctor Li, we aren’t first year medical students, we all know this,” replied Fan Geng.
“Knowing is one thing, but putting it into practice will take you years of practice,” Li Yun looked at the door to invite a volunteer inside. “So now, we will put your skills to practice.”
Li Yun turned to the door and signaled someone to enter. The volunteer, male, late 30s, entered the room and scanned across the room before sitting down on a vacant chair by Li Yun.
“Can anyone tell me what he’s suffering from just by looking at him?” Asked Li Yun.
Some residents looked at the guest, but couldn’t figure out his condition. His appearance was like any other male, average build, and looked healthy overall.
“How can we tell without examining the patient?” The residents asked.
“Just formulate an idea in your head.”
“What if our judgment sets us off on the wrong path?” Some residents worried about creating confirmation bias.
“Should we judge patients based on their appearance?” Other residents worried about the ethics of judging patients based on looks.
“Judge? No, but we need to formulate a diagnosis as quickly as possible and then do everything we can to rule it out,” said Li Yun. “Confirmation bias is possible, but train your mindset to rebuke your diagnosis.”
Li Yun walked around the room to see what the residents had written. Everyone jotted down a guess from diabetes, cancer to joint pain; mainly because there weren't any visible symptoms.
“Fan Geng, why did you guess retinitis pigmentosa?” Li Yun asked reading from Fan Geng's note.
“He looks around the room whenever people are talking,” Fang Geng replied. “The room isn’t that big, so he may have a limited field of vision.”
“That’s a good observation,” said Li Yun. “If you take it one step further, you will know that Mr. Mo focuses specifically on everyone's mouth. He has slight deafness, and from a long distance, it’s difficult to distinguish conversation unless he reads people’s lips. Mr. Mo has Usher’s Syndrome.”
“But Dr. Li, we have never even heard of Usher’s Syndrome, how are we supposed to make that guess?” asked the resident.
“I see that some of you are concerned about making mistakes and guessed a common ailment to cover the basis,” said Li Yun. “Medicine is a large field and it is impossible to understand everything. I suggest you get used to making mistakes now, especially during your training years. This is your opportunity to experiment and test the best method to determine the best method that will work for you. Let’s look at Dr. An Luchang and Dr. Yang Kang as an example. Who do you think has better diagnostic ability?”
The residents were all hesitant to answer as An Luchang was sitting in the rear corner of the room.
“Pretend Dr. An isn’t here, he’s sneaking into this class when he should be taking a break.”
Li Yun then asked them to raise their hands. Twelve raised their hands for An Luchang, while the other three raised their hands for Yang Kang. Li Yu nodded, it was expected. “Dr. An Luchang diagnostic ability is probably 75% accurate, give or take. Dr. Yang Kang is slightly higher, around 80%.”
“But Dr. An Luchang beat you during last year's competition,” Fan Geng pointed out.
“Do I have to remind you that none of the actors during the competition were actually sick?” asked Li Yun. “Anyways. Does anyone know why Dr. Yang is more accurate?”
“I have worked with Dr. Yang on some occasions, but he is always looking up his phone. However, Dr. An Luchang can remember many more diagnoses on sight.”
“Exactly, but at the end of the day, who’s more accurate?”
“Dr. Yang is usually more accurate, but isn’t it because he looks up information?”
“Yes, but what’s wrong with looking up information? Being resourceful is a skill in itself. If you don’t know something, simply look it up. Don’t be stubborn like Dr. An Luchang.”
Unlike the other residents who had always sought Li Yun for help, An Luchang preferred to do things on his own. He only asked Li Yun as a last resort, like what had happened during the poisoning incident.
“What I am teaching you today is my method, but everyone has their own strengths and abilities. What works for me may not work for you. So the goal of this class is to find a method that will work for you.”