The medicine of the new generations

Abstract

Since Hippocrates, the father of medicine, wrote his oath that has survived the millennia, many sunrises have crossed the calendar like a swift and light sigh. In the days when Galen described the hands, eyes, and ears as the primary tools for diagnosing diseases, many books were written with fertile medical information to improve humanity's health. A tour of the hospitals of yesteryear would show us the richness of what we can discover with a prolific anamnesis. The effort of those who preceded us in science to bring out the symptoms and the meticulous observation of the signs led our predecessors to weave the solid structure of modern medicine. Without computers or tomographs, they came to diagnose the pathological entities that govern our daily wanderings today as pilgrims and magnates of hospital roads. Medical life today is only possible with the saving participation of imaging and the laboratory. The discovery of the microscope, biochemical examinations, computers, and X-rays, with their different applications, opened the doors to an infinity that never ceases to amaze. From the enigmatic virus that decimates the population during a pandemic to the 3D images of a scanner that helps to find hidden cancer, the graphic illustrations of our anatomy in real-time and the measurements of values ​​in body fluids guide our decisions for an accurate diagnosis a correct prescription or a precise and detailed surgery. "Don't let your skin stand between you and the diagnosis of that appendicitis..." a clinician told me when faced with a case of suggestive abdominal pain with doubtful images where the semiology exceeded the potential certainty of a state-of-the-art tomograph. The traditional structure of symptoms and signs must strengthen clinical suspicion and anticipate the results of confirmatory tests. The new generations should be encouraged to maintain this culture of examining the patient first. I still remember the diagnosis of a mass in my first rectal examination as a student, made to a patient who had consulted the medical service for a heart condition. The incidental finding of a novice physician probably saved that patient's life on that occasion.