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About this quote

What does it mean?
Every patient is unique; medical treatment must account for individual biological differences.
In plain terms
No two people react to disease the same way.
What can you take from it?
Treat patients individually rather than using one size fits all.

Where it applies

  • medical practice
  • diagnosis
  • treatment planning

Putting it to work

  • customizing treatment plans
  • studying patient history

Questions to consider

  • How personalized should healthcare be?
  • When is generalization useful?

Another view

Generalizations are still necessary for broad medical guidelines.

More from William Osler

  1. To study the phenomenon of disease without books is to sail an uncharted sea, while to study books without patients is not to go to sea at all.

    Permalink to quote #21
  2. The trained nurse has become one of the great blessings of humanity, taking a place beside the physician and the priest.

    Permalink to quote #23
  3. To have striven, to have made the effort, to have been true to certain ideals - this alone is worth the struggle.

    Permalink to quote #20

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