Science and the quiet art

by D. J. Weatherall

Has medical science failed the modern world? A decade ago few would have entertained the thought, for science had slain many of the great killers of the past - smallpox, polio, diphtheria - and moderated others. Yet at the end of medicine's greatest century we seem in many ways at a dead end. Having banished one set of ills we are beset with an array of others, quite intractable diseases - heart attacks, strokes, cancer, arthritis, psychiatric disorders, AIDS. Over recent years there has been a mood of increasing disillusionment with medical practice and practitioners. The needs of patients are often lost in a wealth of high technology. Those who organize health care wonder where their priorities lie, and the public is often bewildered by conflicting advice about how to achieve a healthier lifestyle. Much of this confusion flows from a lack of appreciation of how much medicine has become a genuine scientific discipline and the complexity of our problem diseases. Science and the Quiet A