|
 History
of Medical Diagnosis
The history of medical diagnosis is said to have begun with Hippocrates.
A Greek physician who lived approximately 460-377 B.C. and has been
credited for laying the foundations of scientific medicine. Over the
centuries, man has made great progress in medical research including the
sequencing of the human genome. However, diagnosis is still being
dominated by theories devised in the early 1900s.
Ancient Greece:
In sixth century B.C, Pythagoras associated allergies to Fava beans to
certain families,
becoming the first person to link metabolism and heredity.
The Oslerian ideal:
In the early 1900s, William Osler practiced medicine based on the
principles of
the diagnosis, then treatment of disease. Osler stated the functions of
a physician
were to identify disease, understand its mechanisms, and how it may be
prevented,
and how it can be cured. He took his medical students out of the
classroom and
placed them at the bedside. The Oslerian ideal is the basis for the
Doctors strategy:
"What disease does this patient have and what is the best way for
treatment?
Osler placed the emphasis is on the classification and diagnosis of the
disease.
The cure is the remedies available for the reversed or ameliorated of
the disease.
Garrod's view:
William Osler successor as Regius Professor at Oxford was Archibald
Garrod. Garrod
held the same philosophy as Pythagoras. Garrod believed the factors
which determine
our tendency to acquire or fight off diseases, are inherent in our
chemical makeup.
When you consider Garrod formulated his ideas in the early 1900's, when
the knowledge
of DNA gene encoding had not come about. Fifty years later medicine
fully appreciated
the fundamental importance of Garrods concept of diagnosis.
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