Dr. PacMan

I've temporarily put up a PacMan gadget up on my 'Links' page. PacMan is a little before my time; I grew up in the 8-bit graphics era of Nintendo. Also popular around this time were: slap bracelets, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Vanilla Ice.

I encourage you to play and to relive your childhood as I have been doing for the past 17 hours, or so. Whether I am having a true insight, or whether it is the onset of video game-induced delirium, I find myself seeing many parallels between the plight of our PacMan hero and the plight of the primary care physician. Thus, I have compiled the following top 10 list:

Top Ten reasons why PacMan would make an excellent physician:

1. Hunger - PacMan is hungry. Likewise, the excellent physician should never lose his hunger for knowledge.
2. Confidence - A physician can cause harm to his patient by second guessing himself. Sometimes, suboptimal management given in a timely manner can be better than optimal management given after a delay or hesitancy. PacMan has to be sure of his ability to eat all the dots. If he goes for all the power pellets right away, not sure of his ability to effectively evade the ghosts, he will be in trouble later on when all the power pellets are gone.
3. Risk vs. benefit - PacMan is the foremost authority on risk-benefit analysis. Each ghost he eats is worth more than the previous one. If he eats just one ghost that's 200 pts., but if he eats all four that's 3000 pts! However, each additional ghost he eats confers an added risk of getting killed or of not being able to eat all the dots. PacMan must carefully balance all of these opposing factors.
4. Self direction - PacMan must guide himself through a tricky maze. Staying in one place for too long spells certain death for PacMan as it does for the physician who is not self-directed and self-motivated in his continuing education.
5. Yellow - PacMan is bright and colorful and would nicely complement the decor in a pediatrician's office.
6. Flexibility and adaptability - PacMan, if he had them, would be constantly required to think on his feet. Just as the same management protocol is not appropriate for every patient, PacMan cannot eat all the dots and navigate the maze in the same way every time. He has to be constantly changing his plan of attack in order to avoid the ghosts.
7. Expediency - PacMan is always in a hurry! And, given today's culture of managed care and the 15 minute office visit, PacMan knows how to eat all those dots in the most efficient manner possible.
8. Two-dimensional - Ok, maybe this isn't really an advantage per se. But, hey, at least he's not one dimensional!
9. Anticipatory - PacMan must always anticipate where the ghosts might go in order to avoid them. And he must have a plan in place in case they go somewhere other than where he expects them to go.
10. Round - PacMan is circular, like the excellent, well-rounded physician who has ideas and interests and partakes of activities outside the medical world.

If you don't believe me, play the game for yourself!