I Thought He Was Disabled, He Wasn't

In medicine, we are trained to infer diagnoses from signs and cues. But applying that model to the whole person is risky. We must ask, guided by humility and genuine curiosity. Hugo Ardaillon recalls learning from a patient encounter that you should never assume how someone lives or feels. The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the August 2026 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at https://academic.oup.com/academicmedicine/article/101/8/1035/8541654.