Medicine

Medicine is a branch of health science concerned with maintaining human health and restoring it by treating disease and injury; it is both an area of knowledge, a science of body systems and diseases and their treatment, and the applied practice of that knowledge.

History of medicine

Medicine as it is practiced now is rooted in various traditions, but developed mainly in the late 18th and early 19th century in Germany (Rudolf Virchow) and France (Jean-Martin Charcot, Claude Bernard and others). The new, "scientific" medicine replaced earlier Western traditions of medicine, mostly based on the "four humours" and other pre-modern theories. The focal points of development of clinical medicine shifted to the United Kingdom and the USA by the early 1900s (Sir William Osler, Harvey Cushing).

Related Topics:
18th - 19th century - Germany - Rudolf Virchow - France - Jean-Martin Charcot - Claude Bernard - Four humours - United Kingdom - USA - 1900s - Sir William Osler - Harvey Cushing

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Evidence-based medicine is the recent movement to link the practice and the science of medicine more closely through the use of the scientific method and modern information science.

Related Topics:
Evidence-based medicine - Scientific method - Information science

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Genomics and knowledge of human genetics is already having a large influence on medicine, as the causative geness of most monogenic genetic disorders have now identified, and the development of techniques in molecular biology and genetics are influencing medical practice and decision-making.

Related Topics:
Genomics - Genes - Monogenic - Genetic disorder - Molecular biology

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