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Science 26 May 1978:
Vol. 200. no. 4344, pp. 942 - 946
DOI: 10.1126/science.644336
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Articles

Science, Vol 200, Issue 4344, 942-946
Copyright © 1978 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Medicine: meritorious or meretricious

FJ Ingelfinger

In spite of remarkable advances in medical therapy and in the development of fantastic diagnostic devices, American society appears increasingly disenchanted with the physician. The paradox can be explained by the high cost of medical care, the overselling of medicine's capabilities, the expectation that the physician will be both ultrascientific and as emphathic as yesterday's doctor, and little recognition that the curing of one illness in the elderly exposes this group to other disease. Finally, though the physician is trained to manage illnesses, he is also given the excessively broad task of improving personal and societal practices disadvantageous to health.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Medicine. Status and future of applied sciences.
F. Ingelfinger (1980)
Science 209, 123-126
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