Teaching History of Medicine/Healthcare in Residency
The history of medicine has an important role to play in a medical humanities program. Those who lead the history portion of such programs should see their role as building bridges from history to medical practice. One often distinguishes between the “art” and the “science” of medicine. Both are important today, and the art of medicine comes into play in particular in managing patients who have symptoms without lesions. Here there are clear historical lessons, and such greats as William Osler at Johns Hopkins University thought of history as providing guidance in the therapeutic use of the doctor-patient relationship. These lessons are still relevant today: History can open the eyes of medical students and residents to ways of interacting with patients that they do not otherwise learn about.
Owsei Temkin, The double face of Janus and other essays in the history of medicine, Baltimore, Md., and London, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977, 8vo pp. x, 543, £16.90.
