The changing face of medicine throughout the ages

Abstract

The art of medicine is not talked much about these days. Patients figure it out, too, for the art of medicine transcends all else when an anxious individual confronting death or a serious illness looks at us and asks, “What’s the best for me?” Our response distinguishes medicine as a timeless noble craft from medicine that’s is simply the interpreation of lab results which for the patient means nothing. There has always been a mixture of art and science but over the ages this art/ science ratio has undergone a dramatic change. Using the 20th century retrospectoscope, it would appear that medicine in the past was predominantly art with only a little science thrown in.