Many patients with complex, subtle symptoms can struggle for years, or even decades, without an effective diagnosis.
This is because standard medical approach to problem solving is designed to deal with well understood illnesses such as a heart attack or diabetes.
These standard medical models rely on Authoritative Expertise to diagnose and treat what we now call technical problems.
Although highly effective for technical problems, this approach to problem solving can be far less effective for patients with complex, subtle, multi-system symptoms.
In my practice, I apply the Adaptive Leadership model of problem solving to diagnosis and treatment of these complex unexplained symptoms.
Adaptive problem-solving comes from the Adaptive Leadership work of Professor Ron Heifetz and others at Harvard Kennedy Leadership School, into dealing with problems where the solutions are unclear, or even unknown. Prof. Heifetz is a psychiatrist and teaches that the model can be applied to "leadership" in any context and at any level. Here we are applying it to the role of a doctor and patient.