Underneath the academic curiosity

As a medical student, I have now almost 6 years of academic studies and clinical interaction with numerous patients, though sometimes brief and superficial. I have found that sometimes it is truly hard to grasp how humane a person is behind their sickness. Fortunately, I have been hitherto able to avoid the almost natural desensitization our degree imposes upon us, either through my own process of thought or through a kind warning of some of "my" patients. Having been particularly thrown aback by the keen eye of a patient I had the opportunity to meet in an Oncology ward, I realized that I had much more to consider when studying a clinical case and that rarely a cancer (or a disease whatever it may be) is but a cancer. In fact, a disease needs a patient to be diagnosed upon and that patient has most often a life besides their disease.