It was my first day as an attending physician. Nervousness and excitement competed for the most prominent emotion inside me. I was assigned a medical ward full of patients, each an enigma, each a challenge. I introduced myself to the students, interns and residents as I entered the conference room where we would begin hospital rounds. Jane, the senior medical resident, began her report on the toughest case on our rounds. “Mr. Peterson is a previously healthy 61-year-old man who presented...