​Nowadays we give more attention to the context of the patient’s life in medicine. We are also rehabilitating the physician’s experience-based clinical intuition. We even refer to a new "moral age" in medicine and healthcare. In this perspective, standards and treatment protocols, though, may be at odds with the need for a more individualized approach.

Clinical work with patients cannot be done without some degree of intuition, even if we would rather not admit it. This Companion describes ways and means by which intuition can be trained in medical practice and how it can contribute to that individualization. We can use the 4-step approach starting from the scientific facts, yet seeking a deeper, intuitive understanding of the coherence between medical facts and related phenomena. This Companion describes a framework for a philosophy of science for such an approach, and how this relates to causal analysis.