Angeletti L R
Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale e Patologia, Sezione di Storia della Medicina, Universita degli Studi La Sapienza, Roma, Italy.
Med Secoli. 1998;10(2):289-308.
History of Medicine has pointed its higher attention on both great physicians and relevant medical schools. The hieratic person of the physician has been pre-eminent and conditioning the relationship between patients and doctor, the latter in a paternalistic dominant position. Changes occurred in medicine during the last century, mainly related to the technological advancements and a new ethiopatogenetic view. Better social conditions, improvement of diagnostic procedures and the discovery of effective therapeutic drugs (e.g. antibiotics, etc.) has produced advancements in general life conditions (measured by parameters such as aging, reduction of newborn mortality etc.), but also an increase in the cost of the social medical system. So, the new frontier of History of Medicine is the analysis of changes occurred in medicine (new epistemological rules, pressure of new technologies, more sophisticated citizens-patients) to deepen the values of medicine in an anthropological view of managed care.
医学史一直将更多的注意力放在伟大的医生和相关医学院校上。医生的神圣地位一直十分突出，并决定着医患关系，医生处于家长式的主导地位。上个世纪医学发生了变化，主要与技术进步和新的病因病理学说有关。更好的社会条件、诊断程序的改进以及有效治疗药物（如抗生素等）的发现，在总体生活条件（通过诸如老龄化、新生儿死亡率降低等参数衡量）方面取得了进步，但也导致了社会医疗系统成本的增加。因此，医学史的新前沿是分析医学中发生的变化（新的认识论规则、新技术的压力、更精明的公民患者），以便从管理式医疗的人类学视角深化医学的价值。
