Medicine and Medical Education
Medicine and Medical Education
Medicine is the science and art of caring for a sick person, treating the illness, managing the symptoms, prevention of the recurrence of the disease or injury, and promotion of their general health. It also involves the care of patients who are not in a direct relationship with humans, but whose health is an object of research and study. There are different branches of medicine like microbiology, obstetrics/women’s health, gastroenterology, neurology, cardiology, gastroenterology, clinical medicine, infectious diseases, rheumatology, dermatology, surgery, veterinary medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and nutrition. The branch of medicine that is related to human health and behavior is called clinical medicine. There are many sub-specialties within each branch of medicine like endocrinology, anesthesiology, neurology, nutrition, physiology, psychology, trauma, oncology, and cancer biology.
The field of applied science has emerged out of the clinical medicine. The major components of applied science include physical sciences including physiology and anatomy, life sciences including nutrition, microbiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, diagnostic science, biology, and physics. Some branches of applied science are cognitive science, engineering science, environmental science, quantitative biology, environmental management, geography, ethology, zoology, and wildlife science. The major components of the medical humanities comprise counseling, infectious diseases, cardiovascular medicine, medical philosophy, psychiatric, social sciences, physical sciences, nursing, gerontology, public health sciences, and medical ethics.
There are many books available on applied science. Medicine and Health: A Complete Guide to Practicing in the 21st Century by Gary Null provides basic knowledge about medicine and medical humanities. It includes over forty chapters on issues ranging from economics and policy to government intervention to education and legislation. Another good book on medicine and medical humanities is Bill Gates and Robert J. Kaplan, Preventing School-Related Injury: Making Policy-ivities Work (eds. Bill Gates and Robert J. Kaplan, publishers: Harvard University Press).
A complete guide to practicing medicine and medical humanities is Science and Medicine: The World of Difference by Paul Bahn. It is a concise distillation of all the known knowledge on the subject. It is a text book which anyone can read with relative ease. Another great medical humanities text book is The Science of Learning by Robert J. Toledano (eds.) The Medical Renaissance.
In spite of all the advancements in medicine, it remains a largely undemanding subject. Despite its technological aspects, medicine is still largely a humanistic science. Knowledge acquisition is progressive, not linear. It may take years for one to fully comprehend the principles and theories underlying a particular disease or medical issue. Thus, medicine and medical education remain continuously open to changes and improvement.
A promising future for the field of medicine and medical education is the application of science to medicine. Applications in medicine aim at integrating science with medicine in order to improve health. This is evident in the medical practice of immunology and infectious diseases, where science is being applied as an explanatory principle to explain illness and treatment. It also applies in areas such as genetics and other health issues concerning the study of genes, cells and the body.