Doctors watch people

Doctors—like writers, artists, and spies—are professional people-watchers. More specifically, a doctor's work relies on the ability to discern, among thousands of biological cues, the underlying pathology. It is a skill that is part art, part science; and the more we can see, and sense, and sort, the better our care.

Pauline W. Chen, Final Exam: A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortality  (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007), ch. 6