Wow. Fascinating article. I am an engineer in a family that is otherwise purely medical (mom nurse, dad pediatrician, sister veterinarian).

Over the years I hear a lot of their pain points, and EMR's are consistently very painful for my boomer parents who are not tech savvy (my understanding is that it's not an age thing, though).

I have personal experience with pt. 8: Doctors know who's good, they just won't tell you. When I had a meniscectomy with poor results, none of the orthopedists I visited after the surgery would comment even lightly on the appropriateness of that procedure given my symptoms and MRI. This isn't different to other professions, where you generally have nothing to gain from badmouthing colleagues, but its incredibly painful that thousands of people are prevented from good care because of this meritocratic breakdown.

As a totally separate point-- this format of shadowing notes in incredibly compelling! I've been shadowing chemistry and biology wet-labs lately, and I wonder if making similar writeups would be interesting to others?

Nurses know, too; they just can't tell you because they are not licensed to give medical advice.

Once, in a situation when we really wanted an opinion from a nurse who wouldn't give one, we finally asked, "If it was your daughter, what would you do?" With no hesitation, she told us exactly what she would do. She just couldn't tell us what we should do.

That phrasing has proven to be useful a time or two since then...