The origins of disease orientation in American medical education

Abstract

Three factors enter into the disease orientation of American medical education: the setting in which medicine is taught, the philosophical basis of Western medical education, and the dissimilar origins of curative and preventive medicine. To trace the origins of this disease orientation, one must follow each of these leads back in time and then retrace one's steps. Each of the three sections in this article shows how things that once seemed logical have reached across the centuries to skew the health care system of today. Knowledge of how things got to be the way they are today is the essential first step toward rectifying the illogical aspects of modern medical education and health care.