Medical Zeitgeist
Classical definition of medicine is the science of diagnosing, treating, or preventing disease and damage to the body or mind.
The history of medical science, considered as a part of the general history of civilization, logically begins in Mesopotamia, the cradle of the human race. Modern medical science rests upon a Greek foundation. It is certain that the Greeks brought much with them from their original home, and also learned a great deal from their intercourse with other medical ecoles such as, Chinese Medicine, Egyptian Medicine, Indian medicine, Roman Medicine, Medieval and Early Modern Europe and Oriental Medicine. But the Greek mind assimilated knowledge in such a fashion that its origin can rarely be recognized.
The work of the philosopher and physician Ibn Sina and (Avicenna) is the particular example of the islamic influence. His master work, the Canon of Medicine is considered the most famous book in the history of medicine and remained a standard text in Europe up until its Age of Enlightenment.
The names Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, Howard Florey define the antibiotic revolution in the near past. The name Christian Barnard is the trade mark for heart surgery.
In 1953, the era of molecular biology is officially opened by Francis Crick and James Watson upon shedding light on the DNA structure.
In 2003, the first human genome is sequenced for $3 billion.
If you think that it was a very brief and fast description of the medical history watch what is coming in the next decade. I did not say the next century. The next decade.
When you have all your genes sequenced for less than $1000 you will have around 100 times more medical information than that accumulated throughout the history of medicine.
That medical knowledge will be a product of global medical and information technology and nobody will know which civilization has mostly contributed to it.
