Medicine

Medicine (Latin medicus, "healing") is the science whose object is both the study of the organization of the human body (anatomy), its normal function (physiology), and conservation of Health (prophylaxis), dysfunction (pathology) and lastly the various ways to get the restoration of health (therapy).

The medical process

The steps of the medical procedure is composed of:

  • The etiology is the study of the causes of disease;
  • The pathogenesis is the study of the causal mechanism of medicine;
  • the pathophysiology is the study of major changes in functions of diseases;
  • The semiology is the study of all visible signs. It is akin to what is called the clinic, opposed to the para-clinical results are further investigations. Given the increasing complexity of imaging techniques he has developed a semiology of supplementary examinations;
  • The diagnosis is the identification of the disease;
  • The differential diagnosis is the description of diseases with similar signs and can be confused;
  • The therapy is the treatment of disease;
  • The prognosis is anticipating the evolution thereof;
  • The psychology is part of philosophy that deals with the soul, its faculties and operations. The psychology of the patient is an important element of successful medical process. As stated in 1963 the medical historian Jean Starobinski, "a truly comprehensive medicine is not limited to the technical issue, if fully performed his job, the physician establishes with his patient a relationship that will satisfy the emotional needs of latter. The medical act has thus two aspects: firstly the problems of the body and illness are the subject of a knowledge which is not different from that which we take the rest of nature - and the patient's body is then considered a "thing" living can react according to general laws and, secondly, the therapeutic relationship is established between two people, in the context of a personal story - and medicine becomes This time the art of dialogue, where the patient is offered as an interlocutor and an alarmed conscience Canguilhem wrote him that" the medical act  is not a scientific act as human patient is not just a physiological problem to be solved, it is best to relieve distress. "

Branches of medicine

The medicine is the branch of science and technology. As explained by the medical historian Jean Starobinski, medicine today is the applied science in which we act, directly or indirectly, on the processes occurring in the human body. It is transformed into a knowledge power. Theoretical Medicine (biophysics, biochemistry, physiology, pathophysiology, microbiology, pharmacology ,...) sets the basis and rational experimental technique whose implementation is entrusted to the "practitioner"