Medical schools should teach chaos and complexity thinking

Launer’s excellent proposal to introduce trainees and medical students to existential uncertainty early1 can be achieved by introducing them to chaos and complexity science, with uncertainty a central feature.234 This will help them to deal with uncertainty and complexity in and beyond medicine, to similarly complex topics like health, pandemics, climate change, and global crises, interconnected with medicine.5Uncertainty is complex and dynamic, and dealing with uncertainty goes beyond living with uncertainty. When we see a patient, we try to predict their future to make it better, with varying degrees of certainty and uncertainty. Similarly for life in general, the world, and the planet. We can plan for uncertainty, reduce and manage some, and live with the rest. We swim in an ocean of uncertainty, as Launer says, but it comes in waves and washes ashore on islands of predictability, with dynamic patterns that we can use to work with or…
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