Article Text

Download PDFPDF
The practice of clinical medicine as an art and as a science
  1. John Saunders
  1. Nevill Hall Hospital, Abergavenny

    Abstract

    The practice of modern medicine is the application of science, the ideal of which has the objective of value-neutral truth. The reality is different: practice varies widely between and within national medical communities. Neither evidence from randomised controlled trials nor observational methods can dictate action in particular circumstances. Their conclusions are applied by value judgments that may be impossible to specify in “focal particulars”. Herein lies the art which is integral to the practice of medicine as applied science.

    • Art of medicine
    • medical science
    • empiricism
    • tacit knowledge
    • evidence-based medicine

    Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Footnotes

    • John Saunders, MA, MD, FRCP, is Consultant Physician at Nevill Hall Hospital, Abergavenny.