The Minimalistic Physicians

In a country where a hospital visit often ends with a sheaf of reports and an alphabet soup of test acronyms, a countercurrent of physicians is daring to do less — and, in doing so, often healing more. They call themselves Minimalist Physicians, and their philosophy is built on a bold return to basics: Listen deeply, examine carefully, and order investigations only when they will change the course of care.

Leading this shift are Dr Jagadeesh Kumar V and Dr Srikrishna R Boddu, clinicians who are quietly altering expectations of what modern medicine should be. Their premise is disarmingly old-school: the human body tells its own story, if the doctor has the patience and skill to hear it.

The Minimalist physician movement doesn’t reject technology — it reorders priorities. Instead of starting with a lab slip, doctors like Jagadeesh and Boddu start with a chair, a quiet room and a simple question. “Tell me what’s going on.”

This is medicine stripped down to its essentials. History-taking, once considered the bedrock of diagnosis, is now its centrepiece again.

“Listen to your patient. He is telling you the diagnosis,” says Dr Jagadeesh, senior physician, diabetologist and internal medicine specialist, quoting a principle he considers both ancient and urgently modern. “Machines help. But judgement leads.”

In a system that often confuses quantity of tests with quality of care, this is almost revolutionary.

India’s older population is particularly vulnerable to overtesting, overspecialisation and overtreatment. Minimalist Physicians flip the model.

Instead of a carousel of referrals, seniors get one trusted doctor who understands:

· Their long medical history

· Previous treatments

· Lifestyle changes

· Social stresses

· Financial limitations

This reduces medication load, panic, and hospital dependence — and restores something seniors often lose: control.

At Kamineni Hospitals, Dr Srikrishna R Boddu deals daily with patients caught in the diagnostic maze.

One story stays with him.

A 38-year-old mother arrived with two years of constipation, brain fog, irritability and exhaustion. She brought multiple reports. None explained her suffering.

But Dr Boddu noticed what the papers didn’t.

· A hoarse voice

· Thinning hair

· Slowed movements

· Subtle neurological drag

He didn’t need 25 tests. He needed one. Her TSH: 18 mIU/L. Severe hypothyroidism — long overlooked. “One good examination can outperform ten bad investigations,” he says. It is less a statement and more a manifesto.

Both physicians see teaching as the true engine of change. Dr Jagadeesh urges students to trust their senses before scans. Dr Boddu runs clinical puzzle groups for medical trainees, sharpening judgement through case-based learning.

Their shared message: “Medicine without thinking is not medicine at all.”

Minimalist medicine is not about rejecting the tools of modern healthcare. It is about restoring balance in a system that risks drowning in data and starving for discernment. It gives doctors back their most essential skill — judgment and it gives patients something rarer — trust. Together, these physicians are proving that the future of healthcare may not lie in more testing — but in better listening.

Minimalist Physicians argue that:

· Pre-packaged test bundles create panic, not clarity.

· Abnormal markers often don’t need treatment.

· Highlighted results demand interpretation, not intervention.

The movement fights not tests — but meaningless testing.

· Minimalist physicians reject reflexive testing and embrace disciplined clinical judgment.

· Elderly patients benefit most from continuity of care and reduced unnecessary referrals.

· Clinical skill — not test packages — solves many diagnostic puzzles.