Re-exploration of Oslerian legacy of Osler’s address “Old Humanities and New Science”

Abstract

Abstract During the era of evidence-based medicine, the interpersonal narrative connectedness between doctors and patients is constantly under threat. In order to restore medicine’s essential inter-subjectivity and humanities, a new discipline named “narrative medicine” has risen at the beginning of the 21st century. In this context, as a historical figure full of classical thoughts of medical humanities as well as budding ideas of narrative medicine, William Osler’s thoughts has thus, once again, attracted the attention of experts and researchers in the field of medical education and clinical practice. This article puts forward the opinion that Osler’s legacy in his medical education and clinical practice has laid a solid foundation for the development of medical humanities in 20th century. The authors clarify the Oslerian legacy to the development of modern narrative medicine by expounding the essence of Osler’s last important address “Old Humanities and New Sciences”, which was delivered in 1919. The authors conclude that narrative medicine can be considered as an upgraded version of the Oslerian legacy in the transition from “evidence-based medicine” to “precision medicine”.