I had an "aha!" moment this year-one of those moments of sudden clarity regarding a perplexing challenge that has plagued you for years. I have often described what we do as family physicians as "muddy." It is hard to accurately capture in words the intricacies of managing patients over time-it is muddy. My moment came during a Canadian Institutes of Health Research conference on primary care. Brenda Zimmerman, a business professor from York University, was giving a seminar on complexity and health care.1 The concept of complexity as she described it was a true "aha!" moment for me. She nailed it. She nailed what I was trying to describe using the term muddy. She introduced me to complexity theory and raised my understanding of family medicine to a new level.
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