Medicina

la Medicine is the science and art (ars medicina) of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness. Before scientific medicine, healing arts were practised in accordance with alchemical treatments and ritual practices that developed out of religious and cultural traditions. The term "Western medicine" wasuntil recently used to refer to scientific and science-based practices to distinguish it from "Eastern medicine" — which are typically based in traditional, anecdotal, or otherwise non-scientific practices.

Contemporary medicine applies health science, biomedical research, and medical technology to diagnose and treat injury and disease, typically through medication, surgery, or some other formof therapy. The word medicine is derived from the Latin ars medicina, meaning the art of healing.[1][2]

Though medical technology and clinical expertise are pivotal to contemporary medicine, successful face-to-face relief of actual suffering continues to require the application of ordinary human feeling and compassion, known in English as bedside manner.[3]

Contents [hide]
1 History
2Clinical practice
3 Institutions
3.1 Delivery
4 Branches
4.1 Basic sciences
4.2 Specialties
4.2.1 Surgery
4.2.2 'Medicine' as a specialty
4.2.3 Diagnostic specialties
4.2.4 Other major specialties
4.3 Interdisciplinary fields
5 Education
6 Legal controls
7 Controversy
8 Honors and awards
9 See also
10 References
11 External links

[edit] History
Main article: History ofmedicine

The ancient Sumerian god Ningishzida, the patron of medicine, accompanied by two gryphonsPrehistoric medicine incorporated plants (herbalism), animal parts and minerals. In many cases these materials were used ritually as magical substances by priests, shamans, or medicine men. Well-known spiritual systems include animism (the notion of inanimate objects having spirits), spiritualism (anappeal to gods or communion with ancestor spirits); shamanism (the vesting of an individual with mystic powers); and divination (magically obtaining the truth). The field of medical anthropology examines the ways in which culture and society are organized around or impacted by issues of health, health care and related issues.


Statuette of ancient Egyptian physician Imhotep, the first physicianfrom antiquity known by name.Early records on medicine have been discovered from ancient Egyptian medicine, Babylonian medicine, Ayurvedic medicine (in the Indian subcontinent), classical Chinese medicine (predecessor to the modern traditional Chinese Medicine), and ancient Greek medicine and Roman medicine. The Egyptian Imhotep (3rd millennium BC) is the first physician in history known by name.Earliest records of dedicated hospitals come from Mihintale in Sri Lanka where evidence of dedicated medicinal treatment facilities for patients are found.[4][5] The Indian surgeon Sushruta described numerous surgical operations, including the earliest forms of plastic surgery.[6][dubious – discuss][7]


The Greek physician Hippocrates (ca. 460 BCE – ca. 370 BCE), considered the father ofWestern medicine.[8][9]The Greek physician Hippocrates, considered the "father of medicine",[9][10] laid the foundation for a rational approach to medicine. Hippocrates introduced the Hippocratic Oath for physicians, which is still relevant and in use today, and was the first to categorize illnesses as acute, chronic, endemic and epidemic, and use terms such as, "exacerbation, relapse, resolution,crisis, paroxysm, peak, and convalescence".[11][12] The Greek physician Galen was also one of the greatest surgeons of the ancient world and performed many audacious operations, including brain and eye surgeries. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the onset of the Dark Ages, the Greek tradition of medicine went into decline in Western Europe, although it continued uninterrupted in the...