Standardized Care in a Non-standard World
The Minerva Project • July 18, 2025
Science is often regarded as objective and neutral, rooted in data and numbers, not the abstract. However, science has historically rarely been so, especially medicine.
Many think of healthcare as methodical and procedural: definitive symptoms pointing towards specific conditions, standardized treatments meticulously written out. This system is meant to account for all possible scenarios, with the presence or lack of certain symptoms helping guide treatment plans. These procedures are grounded in centuries of research of human biology that have provided data and information on what works.
Yet, medicine is more than patient cases and lab results. Behind them are people, people whose experience may not align with established norms. That is why providers spend years learning and mastering the art of medicine before they can practice, and why even then, they must still constantly adapt and respond to the people they encounter. It is this quality of responsive thinking that defines medicine. Healthcare is rooted in the human experience; thus, human experience should remain at its center. However, while this principle often shines through in individual practice, it is not in the system medicine operates within. Factors like insurance, geography, and cultural norms shape who receive healthcare, and how.
Medicine may be built on science, but it is lived through people. To be truly effective, healthcare must not only embrace data, but the complexity of the humans behind it. Science can be neutral without forgetting nuance.
