Medicine
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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