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The Medicine Portal

Marble statue of Asclephius on a pedestal, symbol of medicine in Western medicine

Medicine is the science and practice of establishing the diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, and prevention of disease. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness. Contemporary medicine applies biomedical sciences, biomedical research, genetics, and medical technology to diagnose, treat, and prevent injury and disease, typically through pharmaceuticals or surgery, but also through therapies as diverse as psychotherapy, external splints and traction, medical devices, biologics, and ionizing radiation, amongst others.

Medicine has been around for thousands of years, during most of which it was an art (an area of skill and knowledge) frequently having connections to the religious and philosophical beliefs of local culture. For example, a medicine man would apply herbs and say prayers for healing, or an ancient philosopher and physician would apply bloodletting according to the theories of humorism. In recent centuries, since the advent of modern science, most medicine has become a combination of art and science (both basic and applied, under the umbrella of medical science). While stitching technique for sutures is an art learned through practice, the knowledge of what happens at the cellular and molecular level in the tissues being stitched arises through science.

Prescientific forms of medicine are now known as traditional medicine and folk medicine. They remain commonly used with, or instead of, scientific medicine and are thus called alternative medicine. As an example, evidence on the effectiveness of acupuncture is "variable and inconsistent" for any condition, but is generally safe when done by an appropriately trained practitioner. In contrast, alternative treatments outside the bounds not just of scientific medicine, but also outside the bounds of safety and efficacy are termed quackery. This can encompass an array of practices and practitioners, irrespective of whether they are prescientific (traditional medicine and folk medicine) or modern pseudo-scientific, including chiropractic which rejects modern scientific germ theory of disease (instead believing without evidence that human diseases are caused by invisible subluxation of the bones, predominantly of the spine and less so of other bones), with just over half of chiropractors also rejecting the science of immunization. Read more...

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Henrietta Lacks (August 18, 1920 – October 4, 1951) was the involuntary donor of cells from her cancerous tumor, which were cultured by George Otto Gey to create an immortal cell line for medical research. This is now known as the HeLa cell line.

She was born as Henrietta Pleasant on August 18, 1920 in Roanoke, Virginia to Eliza (1886–1924) and John Randall Pleasant I (1881–1969). Eliza died giving birth to her tenth child in 1924. Sometime after his wife's death, John Pleasant took the children back to where their relatives on their mother's side lived, and where they were raised. In 1929, a 48 year old John, still living in Roanoke at 12th Street Southwest, married a 13-year-old girl named Lillian. John worked as a brakeman on the railroad.

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MRI-picture of coarctatio aortae with collaterals.

Photo credit: User:Ekko

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Get involved by joining WikiProject Medicine. We discuss collaborations and all manner of issues on our talk page.

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... that enfuvirtide and maraviroc are HIV entry inhibitors that interact with the viral gp41 and CCR5, respectively?

... in many developing countries indoor air pollution from cooking fire smoke (often using biomass fuels such as wood and animal dung) is a common cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, especially in women?
... that pain in the right iliac fossa during deep palpation in the left iliac fossa is called Rovsing's sign, a test for appendicitis?

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The following are images from various Medicine-related articles on Wikipedia.

Louis Pasteur experimenting on bacteria, c. 1870
Smallpox vaccination in Niger, 1969. A decade later, this was the first infectious disease to be eradicated.
Florence Nightingale triggered the professionalization of nursing. Photograph c. 1860
American combat surgery during the Pacific War, 1943. Major wars showed the need for effective hygiene and medical treatment.
The oldest Polish Collegium Medicum at Jagiellonian University founded in 1364
American Civil War hospital at Gettysburg, 1863
Botánicas such as this one in Jamaica Plain, Boston, cater to the Latino community and sell folk medicine alongside statues of saints, candles decorated with prayers, lucky bamboo, and other items.
Depiction of smallpox in Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún's history of the conquest of Mexico, Book XII of the Florentine Codex, from the defeated Aztecs' point of view
Most countries have seen a tremendous increase in life expectancy since 1945. However, in southern Africa, the HIV epidemic beginning around 1990 has eroded national health.
Andreas Vesalius's 1543 De humani corporis fabrica contained intricately detailed drawings of human dissections, often in allegorical poses.
Traditional medicine in a market in Antananarivo, Madagascar
Guy's Hospital in 1820
The plinthios brochos as described by Greek physician Heraklas, a sling for binding a fractured jaw. These writings were preserved in one of Oribasius' collections.
The Hippocratic Corpus
A collection of early medical works may be associated with Hippocrates
Replica of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek's microscope of the 1670s
18th-century medical remedies collected by a British Gentry family
Monumental stone relief of a fish-garbed figure from the Temple of Ninurta in the Assyrian city of Kalhu, believed by some experts to be a representation of an āšipu, or exorcist-priest, who functioned as a kind of healer and primitive doctor
Medical recipe concerning poisoning. Terracotta tablet, from Nippur, Iraq, 18th century BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul
Patient, Surrey County Lunatic Asylum, c. 1850–58. The asylum population in England and Wales rose from 1,027 in 1827 to 74,004 in 1900.
Assorted dried plant and animal parts used in traditional Chinese medicines, clockwise from top left corner: dried Lingzhi (lit. "spirit mushrooms"), ginseng, Luo Han Guo, turtle shell underbelly (plastron), and dried curled snakes
The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, written in the 17th century BC, contains the earliest recorded reference to the brain. New York Academy of Medicine.
A cochlear implant is a common kind of neural prosthesis, a device replacing part of the human nervous system.
The Quaker-run York Retreat, founded in 1796, gained international prominence as a centre for moral treatment and a model of asylum reform following the publication of Samuel Tuke's Description of the Retreat (1813).
Ayurvedic herbal medicines
Curandera performing a limpieza in Cuenca, Ecuador
"Diagram of the causes of mortality in the army in the East" by Florence Nightingale.
Mexico City epidemic of 1737, with elites calling on the Virgin of Guadalupe
Mandrake (written 'ΜΑΝΔΡΑΓΟΡΑ' in Greek capitals). Naples Dioscurides, 7th century
Sometimes traditional medicines include parts of endangered species, such as the slow loris in Southeast Asia.

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