Medicine : Art or Science

PRACTICE OF MEDICINE: AN ART OR SCIENCE
DR ANIL BHADORIA
PRESIDENT IMA, INDOR BR

A medicine that cares or cures, helps or heals has an even greater consequence for humanity but unlike physics or chemistry, the subject of medicine is not a pure science. It’s a perfect science and is uncertain too. The trivial question is whether the subject of medicine is an ART or a branch of SCIENCE? One can assume medicine is both an Art as well as Science as we deal with physical body, subtle mind, and occult soul all at a time. The most beautiful things we experience are mysterious. So also, is human body which have 600 billion cells, 206 bones, 640 muscles, 360 joints and around 96000 km length of vessels if kept on end to end in an average 70 kg body weight human. 95% of the mass of human body is made of 4 basic elements namely Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen and Nitrogen. Believe it turn on not human body is the most complicated structure present on the earth.

The Inside Out story of human body falls in category of creation of science yet cure and healing is a matter of Physician’s or Surgeon’s skill and that is an Art. Sir Arthur Osler compared practice of medicine as an art of probability and science of uncertainty. This statement justifies various aspects of uncertain healing or probable curing.

With science going forward by leaps and bounds, Diagnostic tools have seen paradigm shift in last few decade. Now cancer cells can be detected at an early stage with PET or DEXA scan which is purely a science domain and an engineering marvel. Same way laparoscopic and robotic surgery have rendered minimal invasion during surgery with less blood loss and a very Rapid recovery also.

Laser therapy, Radio therapy modalities and Ablation therapy have given very promising results in treatment of abnormal and malignant space occupying lesions. This has been a very science achievement. These all are tool driven Diagnostic methods and interventional methods. This scientific inventions involve a clinical approach to have a diagnosis or intervention is possible only with artistic approach of a clinician.

A clinician, be him a surgeon or physician or a General practitioner works to apply his mind out of learnt science with artistic approach to reach to a diagnosis and pick up the set & schedule of drugs. This is all clinical to understand the state of humans with various clinical tests to judge a toxic level of substance or reduction of an element or vitamin or rupture of a tissue in body in an ailing body. Laboratory investigation to get the blood components like cell composition, enzymes have made it easy to reach to an early diagnosis. This is truly a domain of science to get clinical equipment to judge the stage or grade of the disease and to pick up drug molecule is truly an artistic skill.

A newly graduate doctor can prescribe 20 drugs for a disease that is science, but an experience doctor of 20 years may prescribe one drug for 20 diseases that is an art. This young doctor is dependent More on science while an experienced doctor is clinically more practical to shoulder on minimal drugs to be more artistic.

Science may impose dangerous use of drugs on patients to save life while justified intake of drugs will impose a calculated risk and Rapid recovery. In all drugs are chemical compositions and have some Side Effects always on body organs and therefore practice of medicine is an art and not a trade. The person who takes medicine must recover twice once from diseases and once from medicines.

Treating a disease maybe science but treating the patient who has the disease has preventive input inculcated to patient’s profile. That remains like both science and art go hand in hand but future belongs to science.

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