Written by Laura Jang (Korea International School '19)
Edited by Gina Lee (Korea International School '20)
━━ August 12th, 2018 ━━
What Exactly is Medicine?
You all have an idea of what medicine is. You take medicine when you are sick or ill and you usually get better, but can you define what medicine is, in your own words? What exactly is medicine, do you think?
Yes, medicines are used to cure diseases but how do professionals define medicines?
According to Medilexicon’s medical dictionary, medicine is:
a drug.
the art of preventing or curing disease; the science concerned with disease in all its relations.
the study and treatment of general disease or those affecting the internal parts of the body, especially those not usually requiring surgical intervention.
Modern medicine includes many fields of science:
Clinical practice: the process of diagnosing, treating, and preventing disease of a patient
Healthcare science: deals with the application of science, technology, engineering of diagnosis, treatment, care and support of patients.
Biomedical research: researches about ways to prevent and cure diseases, studying biological process of diseases that make people and animals ill or even lead to death. Biomedical research requires careful and accurate experimentation and evaluations, involving many scientists, biologists, chemists, doctors, pharmacologists, and others.
Medications: drugs or medicines that are used in medical diagnosis, prevention, treatment, or cure.
Surgery: focuses on diagnosing and treating diseases and injuries; removing or replacing diseased tissue or organs.
Medical devices: any medical instruments used to help in the diagnosis of diseases and other conditions are part of medical devices. Medical devices are also used to prevent, treat, and cure disease. These are different from medications because medical devices may affect the structure or function of parts of the body through mechanical, thermal, physical, or chemical ways.
The History of Medicine: studies how modern medicine was discovered and how medicine is used from the prehistoric time to the modern days.
Alternative medicine: includes any methods that heal but more based on cultural or historical traditions rather than on scientific evidence such as homeopathy, acupuncture, and traditional Chinese medicine. Scientific evidence based medicine includes any method that demonstrates the effectiveness of a therapy or drug through clinical trials, usually compared to either placebo or another therapy or drug.
If someone asks you to name a few types of medicine, what would you say? Generally, people would say pills and liquids, such as cough syrups. However, there are more than these two types:
Drops are often used where the active part of the medicine works the best if it reaches the affected area directly such as ears, eyes, or noses
Creams, gels, or ointments that are rubbed onto the skin
Inhalers
Patches (also called transdermal patches) are for medicines to be absorbed by the body through the skin
Tablets that are placed under the tongue (also called sublingual medicines; the medication is absorbed into blood vessels and enters the bloodstream)
Injections: subcutaneous (SC) injections given right under the surface of the skin. Intramuscular (IM) injections are given into muscles. Intrathecal injections are given into the fluid around the spinal cord. Intravenous (IV) injections are given into a vein.
No matter how you take medicine, or how it is made- either found in nature or made in labs by mixing together a number of chemicals- all medicine has to be first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which tests all new medicines to see if they are safe to be used on patients.
Now that you have a grip about what medicine is, what are some of the branches of medicine? The branches of medicine are the different fields that students can choose to study, which helps to define their specialty in careers. Medicine first branches out into three different categories:
1. Basic Sciences:
Allergology: study of allergy and hypersensitivity
Angiology: study of circulatory system and lymphatic system (arteries, veins, and lymphatic vases and its diseases)
Cardiology: study of internal medicine dealing with heart and blood vessels
Endocrinology: study of medicine dealing with the endocrine glands (hormones) and their secretions (how they are produced and function)
Immunology: study of human’s immune system
Pathology: study of the diagnosis of disease through examination of organs, tissues, and fluids in the bodies
Toxicology: branch of pharmacology that deals with the nature and effects and treatments of poisons
Cytology: study of the structure and function of cells
Histology: study of the microscopic structure of animal or plant tissues
Physiology: study of the organisms and their functions
2. Medical Specialties:
Diagnostic Specialties(generally take place inside a clinical laboratory, where investigation and screening procedures are conducted):
Gastroenterology: study of medicine of the digestive system and its disorders
Nephrology: study of medicine related to the structure, function and diseases of kidney
Nuclear Medicine: branch of medicine within the field of radiology in the use of radionuclides for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes
Ophthalmology: study of medicine dealing with the diseases and surgery of the visual pathways such as the eye and the brain
Pediatrics: study of medicine concerned with the treatment of infants and children
Clinical Specialties(main specialties considered world-wide):
Dermatology: study of medicine of skin and its diseases
Neurology: related to nervous system and its disorders
Internal medicine: branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of many medical conditions for adult people
Palliative care: study of life-threatening chronic illnesses, especially at the end of life
3. Interdisciplinary fields (sub-specialties of medicine):
Bioethics: branch of ethics that studies moral values in the biomedical sciences
Clinical pharmacology: study of the effects of drugs on people
Forensic medicine: branch of medical science that uses medical knowledge for legal purposes
Medicine has been around for thousands of years but not many people know about it because it has been a part of a daily routine when they are sick. Yet medicine is simply not something you take when you are sick. Yes, you can get better with the help of medicine but that is not what medicine is all about. Medicine is about diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and further studies of diseases. It is about our human bodies; how they are structured and how they function. It is also not only about the medicine itself. There are so many different branches of medicine that it is hard to exactly count how many branches there are out in the world today. Medicine has developed, is developing, and will continue to develop as we improve technologies and come up with new methods to stay healthy.
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Bibliography:
"Branches Of Medicine | Medicine Branches | Medicine | Medical Schools." Aboutmedicalschools.com. N. p., 2018. Web. 18 May 2018.
"Types Of Medicines." Gosh.nhs.uk. N. p., 2018. Web. 16 May 2018.
"Understanding Medications And What They Do." Kidshealth.org. N. p., 2018. Web. 16 May 2018.
"What Is Medicine? A History Of Medicine." Medical News Today. N. p., 2016. Web. 16 May 2018.
Pictures:
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To contact the author, email Laura Jang at ljjang19@student.kis.or.kr
To contact the editor, email Gina Lee at glee20@student.kis.or.kr
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