Introduction -- Part I. From healing art to scientific profession : medicine 500 BCE to 1850 CE -- Swearing by Apollo -- The Levant : saving grace of the Middle Ages -- Physicians, barbers and "old wives" -- Hospitals or hospices? -- Gifts from the sister sciences -- Part II. The making of a doctor : the evolution of medical education -- Acolytes and apprentices -- Starting with Salerno : Europe's first medical schools -- From sacrilege to science : dissection and observation -- Three paths leading to modern medical education -- Money talks : Abraham Flexner's reforms -- High tech, low touch? -- Part III. Medical ethics -- A sacred trust : roots of medical ethics -- First, do no harm : the introduction of humanistic values -- The physician as gentleman -- Balancing individual and public benefit : experimental abuses -- Gods no more : the rise of patients' rights -- Collisions of cultures -- Part IV. The future of medicine as a profession : from Hippocrates to Dr. House -- Cures, at last! -- The conundrum of insurance : raising income, threatening autonomy -- Expanding access to the physician's role -- What it all means.
Summary:
"Only in the latter part of the nineteenth century did medicine achieve the full eight characteristics of a modern profession. And yet, so quickly, it has seen one--autonomy--erode significantly and is beginning to experience the crumbling of another: monopoly of the market of services. Can social prestige and economic rewards be far behind?"--Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.