It wasn't until I had some extended dental work and had to wait around a dental surgery for half a day that I realised just how useful a good memory is for health practitioners.

Of course they have notes. But it's so much easier and more reassuring to remember key facts about patients beyond the immediate medical issues.

It's also easy to forget they see a lot of patients - every day.

So being able to remember names, relationships, interests and prior sessions with hundreds of patients - all the social glue that makes non-trivial reassuring smalltalk possible - is a hugely useful skill.