Show MEDICAL EDUCATION THROUGH l THE AGES J p k What an age of health and promise we live in Medical advances over the past two decades have been in frequency fantastic in scope and dizzying in their accomplishments We have seen polio poli controlled measles and rubella stifled and organ transplants become almost almost almost al al- most commonplace events The result Our children stand to live almost 23 years years longer than their turn of the century ancestors and ancestors and our grandchildren grandchild grandchild- ren will live even longer healthier lives The struggle for today's space space age age medical knowledge however spans the the evolution having been slow arduous and hampered by superstition superstition superstition su su- su- su and misconception Among primitive tribes the medicine man still enjoys a special status and as in the past his training is usually given given given en by apprenticeship to unchanging unchanging unchanging un un- un- un changing unreasoning authority Medical education as we know it began with the early Greeks whose spirit of rational inquiry introduced the practice of observation and reasoning regarding disease They considered considered considered consi consi- dered disease a lack of harmony harmony harmony har har- mony or wholeness sometimes correctable and not necessarily the result of vengeful gods or devils Their interpretations and discussions based on observation observation observation lent themselves to teaching teach teach- ing and ing-and and thus the Greeks founded medical schools where where- e educators d u ca tors like Hippocrates shared wisdom with a new breed of future healers Later the Christian religion made a great contribution to medical education It not only favored the protection and care of the sick but also the establishment establishment establishment esta esta- of institutions where the ill were observed analyzed and discussed by physicians physicians- which allowed for comparisons and resulted in advancements in treatments Great universities and medical medical medi medi- cal schools soon rose in Italy Cracow Prague Paris Oxford and elsewhere in Western Europe Europe Europe Eu Eu- rope but the prestige of professorship professorship professorship pro pro- that drew doctors from their hospitals also led to centuries of increased theorization tion and tion-and and a lessening of realistic realistic realistic real real- familiarity with actual sickness This emphasis upon theory doctrine and systems lasted well into the century century century cen cen- tury when hospital experience in the training of students was reasserted About that time medical education began to assume its modern character The return to the bedside aided hospitals in their long evolution from dwelling places for the poor diseased and infirm maintain infirm maintain maintained ed by charity charity to to today's well- well equipped citadels of health used by every part of the com com- Medical genius and discovery also began to flourish during this period of scientific Louis Pasteur showed the relationship of microorganisms microorganisms microorganisms micro micro- organisms to certain diseases diseases- and Joseph Lister applied these concepts to surgery In the US U.S. the Johns Hopkins Medical Medical Medical Medi Medi- cal School began admitting only college graduates with at least a years years' training in the natural sciences Its clinical work was also superior for that era because the school was supplemented by the Johns Hopkins Hospital created expressly expressly expressly ex ex- ex- ex pressly for teaching and for research by the members of the medical faculty A drastic reorganization of the medical education system in the United States followed close on the heels of a report published in 1910 by the Carnegie Carnegie Carnegie Car Car- negie Foundation for the Advancement Advancement Advancement Ad Ad- of Teaching The report called for better laboratory laboratory laboratory labora labora- tory facilities better access to patients in hospitals and larger and trained better-trained teaching staffs The response to this plea was startling Public and private grants endowments foundations foundations foundations and donations resulted in new and modern buildings laboratories laboratories laboratories la la- clinical facilities teaching staffs and methods of instruction A firm base had been established for the space- space age medical technology and wonder treatments that we we are witness to and to-and and marvel at at- at today Hippocrates would undoubtedly undoubtedly undoubtedly un un- un- un be struck awe-struck by bythe bythe bythe the medical education techniques techniques techniques tech tech- that have evolved from the roots he and his Greek contemporaries set down What might he say for instance after after af af- af ter viewing one of the over surgical films produced by Davis Geck Geek a part of the Lederle Laboratories Division of American Cyanamid These films which make up a surgical film library for the medical profession document the details details details de de- de- de tails of surgical procedure that are required reading for to to- days day's practitioner Hippocrates might very well comment that these pictures are not only worth ten thou thou- thousand thousand sand words words but but a million lives as well |