She turned out to have something called lupus nephritis. The case that I first heard, it was this young woman who had strangely swollen legs. Sometimes that key suspect is not always in the room. Sometimes they are red herrings, sometimes there are false leads. Then you get the exam, and then you think about what tests you want to order, and then you think about what could be going on. You slowly get the information about that. You know what their history is, and they have a problem that they want to talk about. In these, everybody comes together - the medical students, residents, established doctors - to hear a case presented the way it presents to a doctor. I first made this discovery in one of the education sessions that we have, called resident reports. I found out that was not the multiplication tables, but it was Sherlock Holmes. You'd have to get more information to find out which it was. Four times six could be 24, but it could also be something else. I realized once I got to where doctors talked about these things, it was not the case. If you have this collection of symptoms, it's clearly this. I thought - and I think most people think - the diagnosis is like the multiplication tables.

But when I got to the third year, when you actually get out of the classroom and go into the hospital and see how doctors work, I saw that what I thought of diagnosis was was wrong much of the time - or for the most exciting parts, in any case. I can do medical school.' And I could do medical school. During that time I felt, 'I know medicine. That's one of the reasons I decided to go to medical school. During those ten years or so, I spent a lot of it covering medicine. I came to medical school after a brief career in television. How did that evolve for you, as something that is such an integral part of your career, your writing, and your teaching? This gripping, puzzling series begins with you, and your own transformation from someone who believed that a diagnosis was always a finite thing, like solving a math problem, to it becoming a detective story.

Dr lisa sanders new york times