I believed that being a good doctor meant knowing the clinical facts down cold. And I somehow had led myself to believe that it would’ve taken much more time and effort to pay closer attention to those other details.

It was as if there had to be some kind of trade-off.

But I was wrong, on two counts. It was possible to learn about the economic and social aspects of health care while immersed in the details of biology, physiology and pharmacology. And it was impossible to become a good clinician without doing so.