Defining collective experience: when does wisdom take precedence?

Defining collective experience and determining when wisdom takes precedence are, indeed, daunting tasks. In order to prepare my position on this subject, inspiration (particularly from Anthony Asher), self-reflection, much thought, and research were required. To accomplish this task, I specifically address four points: (1) the development of an understanding of clinical wisdom, (2) the role of clinical wisdom in daily practice, (3) the teaching of clinical wisdom, and (4) answering of the question “when does wisdom take precedence?” For the purpose of discussion, I begin by defining clinical wisdom as the ability to effectively assimilate data, observations, and previous experiences for the purpose of optimizing clinical decision making. Using this relatively rudimentary definition, we can now begin the process of understanding clinical wisdom, determine its role, appreciate our ability to teach and learn it, and finally to develop a means to understand when clinical wisdom should actually be applied (or rather, when it takes precedence).