Errors often lead the way to new knowledge. Some of the most important advances in medicine have developed from the recognition and study of errors. Many details of our present rapidly progressing understanding of the diagnosis of cardiovascular disease have arisen from our analysis of errors in the interpretation of cardiovascular symptoms and signs. It is of some of these that I shall speak to you today.
The appraisal of cardiac symptoms, the most important part of cardiovascular examination and the part that requires no use of hands or instruments, is, and always has been, the most imperfect and neglected.
Published: Ann Intern Med. 1936;9(12):1703-1713.