Has the Art of Medicine Been Forgotten?

Medical education is critically important to the evolution of medicine as a whole. The physician’s education is ongoing throughout medical school and career, and buried within the sheer volume of physiologic and medical knowledge is truly an art—that which balances science and humanity, policy and morality, and reminds physicians that healing is just as important as treating. The art of medicine is often assumed to be something you learn along the way, rather than seen as itself an intangible force that stemmed from the minds and practice of those who came before MRIs, retrovirus vaccines, and stem cell research.

I have written several blogs on this topic, which may be found at www.consultant360.com/blogs/25. Future blog postings will explore the origin of core medical teachings that are an integral part of the foundation of the art of medicine. We will investigate some of the most profound contributors to medical humanism: those who provide the tenets that form the basis for how to practice medicine in a professional and balanced way. Considered will be many of the great historical clinicians—those whom most medical students and physicians know a little about—yet who have significantly shaped the ideals in clinical medicine, including Hammurabi, Plato, Hippocrates, Rhazes, Avicenna, Maimonides, Osler, Peabody, Schweitzer, and others. This qualitative review is based on what I have learned in researching for a recently released book I authored on this topic.¹ My postings will not be comprehensive, but I trust thought provoking. I will highlight the Art of Medicine and not the science or per se the history of medicine.

My postings target physicians, young and not so young, with the intent to make them better physicians. By looking at the writings of some of medicine’s giants, as well as from some of my observations in clinical practice, I will emphasize humanistic medicine. In our era of high technology I focus on “high touch.” My goal is to reveal how to make the transition from technician to healer. Although referring to a doctor as a healer may seem outdated or corny, my vision is to have us strive to be great. A physician who is regarded as a healer is in my mind a giant of a man or woman. Plato wrote of such an ideal in his Republic: “But tell me, your physician in the precise sense of who you were just speaking, is he a money maker, an earner of fees, or a healer of the sick?”²

Such a goal may seem quixotic and it is. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that the legendary medical educator William Osler urged all medical students to read non-medical literature each night, including Don Quixote. My personal goal is to reach for the stars and attempt to do extraordinary things for my patients. I realize that I will often fall short of such a mark. To that end we are reminded by Hippocrates that “the gods are the real physicians.” I don’t think we should be discouraged by this observation (even from someone known for his skill of observation). In the words of the British writer Robert Browning who wrote in the poem entitled “Rabbi Ben Ezra,” “that which I aspire to be and am not comforts me.” Just because we cannot reach perfection does not mean that we should not try.

If you are interested in learning more about the physician-patient relationship, what goes on inside the exam room between the patient and his doctor, and want to be the best you can be, I invite you to visit my blog on the Consultant 360 website and check out the website devoted to my book, Advice to the Young Physician: On the Art of Medicine, at www.advicetotheyoungphysician.com.

We have not forgotten the art of medicine. I believe reading more about some of history’s greatest physicians and learning how best to practice this most noble of all arts invigorates us. Feel free to contact me at advicetotheyoungphysician@gmail.com with your thoughts. I am in the process of writing a second edition to this book, and I welcome your input.