"Believe it or not, the risk of being sued for malpractice has very little to do with how many mistakes a doctor makes. Analyses of malpractice lawsuits show that there are highly skilled doctors who get sued allot and doctors who make lots of mistakes and never get sued." (Gladwell 40)

In the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, The science of how we think and the subconscious decisions we make are explored. The above quote was a shocking revelation for me (though I take it with a grain of salt) because I always thought that malpractice lawsuits were based exclusively from shoddy medical care. Many of my family members are involved in the medical industry and I found the Gladwell's findings very interesting.

The book shows that most clients of malpractice lawyers sue their doctors because something went wrong in the treatment process along with the fact that they didn't like the doctor on a personal level. Clients rarely sue the doctors that they have a personal affinity for even if they make frequent mistakes.

"Burkin once had a client who had breast tumour that wasn't spotted until it had metastasized, she wanted to sue her internist for the delayed diagnosis despite the fact that it was her radiologist who was at fault, she was adamant, she wanted to sue the internist." (Gladwell 41)

The patient-doctor interaction and the tone used by the doctors were the key difference between groups of physicians who got sued and those who didn't. The doctors who were never sued always had longer than average conversations with the patients and used more orienting and guiding words that made the patients feel more secure and in control. Doctors who couldn't express themselves in a concerned manner but talked in a more dominant fashion were more likely to be sued. The qualifications or the skill level of the doctors were surprisingly irrelevant in the findings.

It is very interesting to see how much power a conversation or a moment can have in our minds. We make strong judgements based on the smallest of details even though they aren't always just. The finding makes me question the way our society functions when there can be so much room for flaws in judgement.