Medicine / Online Political Science Book
Medicine
(Latin medicus, "physician"), the science and art of diagnosing, treating,
and preventing disease and injury. Its goals are to help people live longer, happier,
more active lives with less suffering and disability. Medicine goes beyond the
bedside of patients. Medical scientists engage in a constant search for new drugs,
effective treatments, and more advanced technology. In addition, medicine is a
business. It is part of the health care industry, one of the largest industries
in the United States, and among the leading employers in most communities.
Disease has been one of humanity's greatest enemies. Only during the last
100 years has medicine developed weapons to fight disease effectively. Vaccines,
better drugs and surgical procedures, new instruments, and understanding of sanitation
and nutrition have had a huge impact on human well-being. Like detectives, physicians
and other health care professionals use clues to identify, or diagnose, a specific
disease or injury. They check the patient's medical history for past symptoms
or diseases, perform a physical examination, and check the results of various
tests. After making a diagnosis, physicians pick the best treatment. Some treatments
cure a disease. Others are palliative-that is, they relieve symptoms but do not
reverse the underlying disease. Sometimes no treatment is needed because the disease
will get better by itself. While diagnosing disease and choosing the best
treatment certainly require scientific knowledge and technical skills, health
care professionals must apply these abilities in imaginative ways. The same disease
may present very different symptoms in two patients, and a treatment that cures
one patient may not work on another. At the turn of the 20th century, many
men and women were feeble by age 40. The average American born in 1900 had a life
expectancy of 47.3 years. Effective treatments for disease were so scarce that
doctors could carry all their drugs and instruments in a small black bag. By the
end of the 20th century, medical advances had caused life expectancy to increase
to 76 years. Modern health care practitioners can prevent, control, or cure hundreds
of diseases. People today remain independent and physically active into their
80s and 90s. The fastest-growing age group in the population now consists of people
aged 85 and over. This medical progress has been expensive. In 1998 Americans
spent $1.1 trillion on health care, an average of $4,094 per person. In the same
year, health care accounted for about 13.5 percent of the gross domestic product
(GDP), about one-seventh of the country's total output. Spending has grown rapidly
from earlier in the century. In 1940, for instance, the United States spent $4
billion on health care.
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