To the Editor:
The recent guest editorial “Elephant Medicine Revisited,”1 by master teacher Herbert L. Fred, MD, really hit home. As I read it, I recalled the repeated iterations of his points and the vivid examples that he had given to me and my fellow house officers on this very topic.
From his Morning Reports and bedside visits, many of my colleagues and I have come to realize that medical school somehow promotes the “herd” mentality. Were it not for Dr. Fred, many of us likely would continue acting mindlessly like elephants, nose to tail, following each other and never questioning authority. In my experience, no one else in medical school or during our postgraduate training exhorted us to think for ourselves.
As a former—but now reformed—member of the Elephant Medicine “herd,” I recommend that all physicians take Dr. Fred's advice: always put your patients first and always think for yourself.
Don't follow the herd. Follow the Herb!