The Problem With Certainty in Medicine: Emma and the Danger of Thinking We Already Know

"Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure." — Jane Austen, Emma

Emma Woodhouse's greatest flaw is not malice or vanity. It is certainty. Medicine, for all its scientific sophistication, struggles with the same problem.

When confidence becomes certainty, it can blind. And in healthcare, a blind spot has consequences far beyond embarrassment at a dinner party. The danger is not simply that clinicians can be wrong. It is that they can be wrong with conviction.

Read on to explore how humility, reflective practice, and patient partnership can help clinicians see more clearly.