Quality

While I was thinking of the responsibility of a doctor, a friend of mine showed me the aim of undergraduate medical education, as laid down by our Medical Council:

In essence, the undergraduate medical education aims to prepare graduates to fill the roles of medical practitioner, communicator, educator, humanist, collaborator, health advocate, resource manager, scientist and scholar.

Once again, I was so impressed that I lost my nerve.

For a moment I tried to reflect which doctor I knew ever achieved such a degree of holistic perfectionism.

Of course you may argue we must set a high target if we want to achieve a result of mediocre. But no. We do not ask every member of an orchestra to be proficient with every instrument - this target is not high, it is unrealistic. A high but appropriate aim would be asking the violinist to achieve the standard of Niccolò Paganini or Antonio Vivaldi, rather than requiring him to learn some piano or clarinet. Similarly, we should be more than happy if we have most graduates being able to competently fulfill the role of medical practitioner, a few become educators, another few scientists, and some (hopefully not many) resource managers.

PS. By the rule of geometry, only sphere is good at all dimensions. As pointed out by Wang Anshi (王安石) long ago, a sharp spike would come out from a leather bag - exactly because it has an edge rather than being all-rounded.