11/09/2026
**A small request to my fellow doctors and colleagues:
Please take a detailed history and a focused clinical examination of every patient—on every visit.
It is easy to get anchored to a previous diagnosis, an old investigation, or a familiar clinical label. But patients evolve, symptoms change, and the same complaint can have completely different causes in different patients.
A normal ECG, an old echocardiogram, a previous diagnosis, or a past medical history should guide us—but should never replace **history and examination.**
Sometimes, the diagnosis is not hidden in another expensive investigation.
Sometimes, it is in the questions we didn't ask or the sign we didn't look for.
Treatment also varies from patient to patient and case to case. What is appropriate for one patient may not be appropriate for another, even when they present with seemingly similar symptoms.
Every patient deserves a fresh clinical assessment.
Every visit is an opportunity to reassess.
And sometimes, careful history and examination can change everything.
**Listen. Examine. Think. Then Treat.**
Dr Umm E Salma Rashid
