Sarah Miller and I wrote a primer on training and differing ways of thinking between MDs, Engineers, and Life Scientists.

Abstract: Many of the failures in communication among physicians, engineers, and life scientists may be due to the differing ways that they approach problems. More than mere personality differences, physicians, engineers, and life scientists are trained with different problem-solving philosophies and strategies. This chapter discusses these differences, provides several example problems that characterize these three different ways of thinking, outlines the corresponding differing approaches to failure, and concludes with a glossary of some terms that are used in different ways across these three fields.

It is included as a chapter (pdf) in Williams, R. S. and Doarn, C. R. (Eds.) Engineering, Life Sciences, and Health/Medicine Synergy in Aerospace Human Systems Integrations – The Rosetta Stone Project (Ch 4, p37-44). NASA-SP-2017-633. (NTRS)