Medicine: Occupational Hazard

Every occupation has its hazards. Miners are prone to anthracosis or "black lung," divers to the bends and tennis players to bursitis. According to Dr. Frank Gross of the U.S. Public Health Service, who describes his findings in the New England Journal of Medicine, many physicians suffer from a condition to be known henceforth as the Emperor's Clothes Syndrome (ECS).

First described by Hans Christian Andersen in 1837, ECS can affect anyone who practices medicine. But Gross reports that the disability is more common among interns, residents and assistant department chiefs than it is among new medical students and professors. The symptoms...

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