Medicine
Medicine is the science[1] and practice[2] of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness. Contemporary medicine applies biomedical sciences, biomedical research, genetics, and medical technology to diagnose, treat, and prevent injury and disease, typically through pharmaceuticals or surgery, but also through therapies as diverse as psychotherapy, external splints and traction, medical devices, biologics, and ionizing radiation, amongst others.[3]
There are different perspectives, systems and cultures in medicine. There is a mainstream based on western thought and science, sometimes called mainstream medicine or conventional medicine. Besides that there are systems with different cultural origin, or different paradigms. These bear different names like traditional medicine, alternative medicine or complementary medicine. An impulse of integration of different medical approaches lives in integrative medicine.
references
- ↑ Firth, John (2020). "Science in medicine: when, how, and what". Oxford textbook of medicine. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198746690.
- ↑ Saunders J (June 2000). "The practice of clinical medicine as an art and as a science". Med Humanit. 26 (1): 18–22. doi:10.1136/mh.26.1.18. PMID 12484313. S2CID 73306806.
- ↑ "Dictionary, medicine". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 Dec 2013.