Personal essays · Amritsar → Fresno · 1994–2026
Where knowledge lives.
In one physician’s lifetime, the medical record moved from his mind to a paper chart, to a fragmented database, to an integrated system, and now to software that reads it and acts. These essays ask what that did to the patient, the doctor, and the truth between them.
Five rooms the record has lived in
Scroll sideways →- 1994
Amritsar · Khalsa CollegeThe physician’s mindWhatever you did not memorize tonight would not be available tomorrow. Cognition and responsibility were joined in one person.
- 2002
Amritsar · Sri Guru Ram Das InstituteThe paper chartIts failures were honest. You knew when you did not have the chart. A visible gap makes you cautious.
- 2008
Little Rock · UAMSThe fragmented EMRSystems layered on systems. A physician needed to know not only medicine but where each fact lived.
- 2011
Fresno · the integrated EHRThe record became the roomPowerful enough that medicine reorganized around it. The price of the bargain was attention.
- 2026
California · nowSystems that read and actGenerative AI answers. Agentic AI acts. Does information ever become understanding?
The Primary Care Office After the EHR
From a village in Punjab to Epic and artificial intelligence: what thirty years in medicine have taught one physician about the next thirty.
ਜੇ ਸਉ ਚੰਦਾ ਉਗਵਹਿ ਸੂਰਜ ਚੜਹਿ ਹਜਾਰ ॥
ਏਤੇ ਚਾਨਣ ਹੋਦਿਆਂ ਗੁਰ ਬਿਨੁ ਘੋਰ ਅੰਧਾਰ ॥
If a hundred moons were to rise, and a thousand suns appeared, even with all that light, without the Guru there would still be darkness.
Newest
All essays →- 008What the Village Knew About IllnessNoticing, remedies, the compounder, and the care a village gave its sick.Nov 7, 2026 · 25 min · Roots
- 010The Names on the Gurdwara WallWhat a wall of names records, what it leaves out, and how to read it responsibly.Nov 7, 2026 · 25 min · Roots
- 014The City of the Fourth GuruCommemoration, descent, and the name a city and a medical school share.Nov 7, 2026 · 25 min · Roots
- 016Seven Children and a SchoolHow a small beginning becomes a school that outlasts its founders.Nov 7, 2026 · 24 min · Roots
The November 2026 collection
All essays →60 essays published together on November 5, 2026, drawn from every section of the catalogue: Khadur Sahib and Amritsar, the student years, leaving India, Little Rock and Fresno, the examination room, the record, and the life that continues outside the appointment. Six places to begin:
- 001Khadur Sahib: Where the Story BeginsAn ancestral town, a childhood city, and what each kind of belonging permits.25 min · Roots
- 072The Accent in the RoomAccentedness, ease and understanding differ, and the listener shares the work.25 min · Becoming a Doctor
- 093Fresno, 2008Beginning again in the Central Valley, and learning a place by its year.24 min · Becoming a Doctor
- 144The Older I Get, the More I ListenExperience as a reason to leave room for surprise, not to finish the sentence.24 min · The Examination Room
- 175Wrong BeautifullyHow polish lends a sentence more certainty than its evidence can bear, and how to check it.25 min · The Machine That Reads
- 205Roti at 9 PMAn imagined late supper: one roti, a slow griddle, and an evening that need not be earned.25 min · Notebook
Reading paths
All six paths →From Khadur Sahib to Fresno
The geography of a life in six places: an ancestral town, a city, a college, a departure, a first American hospital, and the valley where the work settled.
Begins with Khadur Sahib: Where the Story Begins →6What a Language Carries
A first language, an accent, a telephone call home and a word for worry: what it takes to be understood, and to understand.
Begins with Punjabi as a First Language of Medicine →6The Ordinary Working Day
A clinic day from the first patient to a late supper. The day and the supper are illustrative, not a diary.
Begins with An Ordinary Tuesday →6Who Wrote This Account?
Memory, retrieval, repetition and authorship: how a medical record comes to say what it says, and who answers for it.
Begins with Where Knowledge Lived: Amritsar, 1995 →6The Room We Want to Keep
Technology and attention in the examination room, with both the benefits and the responsibilities in view.
Begins with The Physical Examination in the Age of Technology →6A Life That Continues Outside the Appointment
Waiting, caregiving, hope, and two letters across time: an entrance for readers whose interest begins outside medicine.
Begins with Waiting for the Result →Ways in
All series →Roots
Khadur Sahib, the Majha, and Amritsar before the internet.
26 published · Explore →79Becoming a Doctor
Khalsa College to the last day of residency.
40 published · Explore →28The Examination Room
Craft and attention: what a visit is really made of.
6 published · Explore →30The Machine That Reads
Living through the arrival of AI in the clinic.
4 published · Explore →12Notebook
Close studies of a single object, word or moment, each examined at the length it deserves.
3 published · Explore →25The Human Pulse
What everyone feels in a doctor’s office.
6 published · Explore →239 essays in fifteen sections.
From a town of succession in the Majha to an examination room in California: one physician’s life, written a piece at a time. 97 published so far; the other 142 are listed in the catalogue as forthcoming.
Browse the catalogueKhadur Sahib · Amritsar · Spring Dale · Khalsa College
Four short pieces in the memoir register on where the writing comes from.
Visit the four places →Fidelity · Equality · Embodiment
ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ the faithful record · ਲੰਗਰ equal reach · ਅਖਾੜਾ the embodied patient — and Ang 463: light is not understanding.
How the series is built →New essays by email
Memoir and reflection, one essay at a time. The list is kept at kpsgill.com; this site has no tracking.