Volume 185 - Issue 11
The essence of the art of medicine
Author: Norman Shum
Med J Aust 2006; 185 (11): 672. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2006.tb00752.x
Published online: 4 December 2006
Published online: 4 December 2006
To the Editor: I agree with Van Der Weyden’s quotation from Osler: “The practice of medicine is an art, based on science.”1 In my medical training in the 1960s, I was taught that medicine was both an art and a science — perhaps more the former than the latter, given that the technological age was not yet fully upon us. It saddens me that there is now an almost inexorable trend towards the use of advanced technology in medicine and away from human interaction between doctors and patients. I do not believe in reducing humans to mere numbers on a pathology results form or images on a computer-driven x-ray monitor. This is what helping patients “judge” which path to take “through the indeterminacies” back to health1 suggests.
Gordon expressed similar sentiments in an earlier article:2
The arts, humanities and social sciences act as a counterbalance to the relentless reductionism of the biomedical sciences . . . [M]edicine will attract students who are interested in the biomedical sciences, many of whom are particularly good at processing and memorising information. Unless they have adequate time for reflection, such students may ultimately adopt a dogmatic or overly technical approach to clinical practice . . .
As a “doctor” — in the sense of a modern version of an ancient healer — I accept that my role is “to cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always”.3 There is cold comfort if we lose the “art” of medicine.
References
- Van Der Weyden MB. From the Editor’s Desk: The essence of the art of medicine. Med J Aust 2006; 185: 185. CHDDGGGG
- Gordon J. Medical humanities: to cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always. Med J Aust 2005; 182: 5-8. CHDFJGAH
- Strauss MB, editor. Familiar medical quotations. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1968. CHDIDIHF
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