# Quote — Victoria Sweet, Slow Medicine

> The essence of Medicine is story-- finding the right story, understanding the true story, being unsatisfied with a story that does not make sense. Healthcare, on the other hand, deconstructs story into thousands of tiny pieces-- pages of boxes and check marks for which no one is responsible.

- Author: [Victoria Sweet](https://www.leafyquotes.com/victoria-sweet.md)
- Book: [Slow Medicine](https://www.leafyquotes.com/victoria-sweet/slow-medicine.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Victoria_Sweet#Slow_Medicine:_The_Way_to_Healing_(2017)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/victoria-sweet/slow-medicine/the-essence-of-medicine

## More from this book

> Everything looked so good in the computer, and yet what Father had gotten was not Medicine but Health Care-- Medicine without a soul. What do I mean by "soul"? I mean what Father did not get. Presence. Attention. Judgment. Kindness. Above all, responsibility.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/victoria-sweet/slow-medicine/everything-looked-so-good.md)

> [In likening Slow Medicine to Slow Food:] Slow Food was not really about fast or slow in time. Rather it was about privileging the basics-- the ingredients, which do take time: farmers' time and gardeners' time, and also their skill, experience, and knowledge. It was about accepting what is-- the seasons, weather, climate-- and flowing with it, not against it. It was about removing what is in the way of a plant being the healthiest, the most fertile, the happiest it could be, and doing so by little actions, by fussing and fiddling. That was how it was "slow."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/victoria-sweet/slow-medicine/in-likening-slow.md)

> We can allow for Slow Medicine beds in our hospitals so that doctors have enough time to find out what is really wrong with a patient, and patients have enough time to heal.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/victoria-sweet/slow-medicine/we-can-allow.md)