According to the fascinating book "Bad Medicine: Doctors Doing Harm since Hippocrates" (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bad-Medicine-Doctors-Doing-Hippocrat...) Doctors were doing more harm than good right up until the 1950s and some even after that due to receiving training earlier.
Basically this changed with the germ model and penicillin (which was discovered by accident and then used by Fleming to create entirely ineffective but very profitable vaccines until one of his students, against his wishes, purified it and put it to actual use as an antibiotic).
There's some disturbing anecdotes in there, such as doctors not bothering to wash their hands while delivering babies, even after they knew it could lead to deaths, because their patients were too poor to pay for the time it would take.
Even today, it is evidence based medicine which is the new big thing. Actually testing out what works in a scientific manner with double-blind test and rigorous statistics rather than fumble through on gut feelings dressed up as science or experience.
I take comfort in the fact that while out profession is still at the quack stage, that there is something at it's core. At least we're not psychotherapists or homeopaths, though sometimes were too close for comfort.
Basically this changed with the germ model and penicillin (which was discovered by accident and then used by Fleming to create entirely ineffective but very profitable vaccines until one of his students, against his wishes, purified it and put it to actual use as an antibiotic).
There's some disturbing anecdotes in there, such as doctors not bothering to wash their hands while delivering babies, even after they knew it could lead to deaths, because their patients were too poor to pay for the time it would take.
Even today, it is evidence based medicine which is the new big thing. Actually testing out what works in a scientific manner with double-blind test and rigorous statistics rather than fumble through on gut feelings dressed up as science or experience.
I take comfort in the fact that while out profession is still at the quack stage, that there is something at it's core. At least we're not psychotherapists or homeopaths, though sometimes were too close for comfort.