Chapter 1. The Practice of Medicine
Sections: The Modern-Day Physician, Clinical Skills, Principles of Patient Care, The Patient-Physician Relationship, The Twenty-First Century Physician: Expanding Frontiers, Further Readings.
Excerpt: "The practice of medicine has changed in significant ways since the first edition of this book appeared in 1950. The advent of molecular biology with its enormous implications for the biological sciences (the sequencing of the human genome), sophisticated new imaging techniques, and advances in bioinformatics and information technology have contributed to an explosion of scientific information that has fundamentally changed the way we define, diagnose, treat, and prevent disease. This explosion of scientific knowledge is not at all static as it continues to intensify with time. Science-based technology and deductive reasoning form the foundation for the solution to many clinical problems. Spectacular advances in biochemistry, cell biology, and genomics, coupled with newly developed imaging techniques, allow access to the innermost parts of the cell and provide a window to the most remote recesses of the body. Revelations about the nature of genes and single cells have opened the portal for formulating a new molecular basis for the physiology of systems. Increasingly, we are understanding how subtle changes in many different genes can affect the function of cells and organisms. We are beginning to decipher..."
Sections: The Modern-Day Physician, Clinical Skills, Principles of Patient Care, The Patient-Physician Relationship, The Twenty-First Century Physician: Expanding Frontiers, Further Readings.
Excerpt: "The practice of medicine has changed in significant ways since the first edition of this book appeared in 1950. The advent of molecular biology with its enormous implications for the biological sciences (the sequencing of the human genome), sophisticated new imaging techniques, and advances in bioinformatics and information technology have contributed to an explosion of scientific information that has fundamentally changed the way we define, diagnose, treat, and prevent disease. This explosion of scientific knowledge is not at all static as it continues to intensify with time. Science-based technology and deductive reasoning form the foundation for the solution to many clinical problems. Spectacular advances in biochemistry, cell biology, and genomics, coupled with newly developed imaging techniques, allow access to the innermost parts of the cell and provide a window to the most remote recesses of the body. Revelations about the nature of genes and single cells have opened the portal for formulating a new molecular basis for the physiology of systems. Increasingly, we are understanding how subtle changes in many different genes can affect the function of cells and organisms. We are beginning to decipher..."
