Virtual Medicine Grand Rounds – Lisa Sanders, MD, FACP, Yale School of Medicine, “Zebras and Horses: Dimensions of Diagnostic Error.”

Dr. Lisa Sanders is a clinician educator in the Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency Program. In addition to her work as a physician and teacher, she writes the popular Diagnosis column for the New York Times Magazine and the Think Like a Doctor column featured in the New York Times blog, The Well. Her column was the inspiration for the Fox program House MD (2004-2012) and she served as a consultant to the show. In 2010, she published a book titled Every Patient Tells a Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis. Last year she collaborated with the New York Times on an eight-hour documentary series on the process of diagnosis for Netflix. Her most recent book is a collection of her columns and is titled, Diagnosis: Solving the Most Baffling Medical Mysteries.

Sanders’ path to medicine was anything but traditional. As an undergraduate at the College of William and Mary, she majored in English, wrote for The Flat Hat, the college paper, and served pints of ale at Chownings Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg. After graduation she took a job with ABC at Good Morning America. Less than 10 years later, while working for CBS News, she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story for coverage of Hurricane Hugo as it slammed into her hometown of Charleston, S.C. But by then, Sanders said, she was ready to move on professionally and decided that of all the subjects she covered as a journalist, medicine intrigued her most. After two years at Columbia University’s Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Program, Sanders was accepted to the Yale School of Medicine “as part of the 10 percent of the class they reserve for weirdos,” she said. In addition to her time in the hospital, Sanders is currently researching clinical decision making and the way diagnostic decisions and errors are made. She has also published two books on weight loss and food choice — The Perfect Fit Diet: Combine What Science Knows About Weight Loss With What You Know About Yourself in 2004 and The Perfect Fit Diet: How to Lose Weight, Keep it Off and Still Eat the Foods You Love in 2005.