Then and now…

Now that the year is coming to a close, everyone has been working on their lists: top 10 best… top 10 worst…

However, this is also a time to reflect on what changes have occurred—not only in this past year, but in the past 50 years.

The article in The New York Times, "So Many Advances in Medicine, So Many Yet to Come", gives a wonderful description of how medicine has changed in the past several decades thanks to new technology, new research findings, new prescription medicine. So many things changed such as how you treat heart attacks, in vetro fertilization, immunizations to prevent-- at the time-- rampant infections, CT Scans, M.R.I.s, Xrays, etc.

Even the attitude of doctors has changed. As the writer (also a doctor) writes:

At the time, anyone who went into preventive medicine and public health was assumed to have graduated at the bottom of the class. A shingle on Park Avenue was the measure of success, not saving lives in poor countries. Now students are eager to study global health.

Yes, it is now a global world. No longer is it just about us -- how can we help ourselves. Now it's more about how can research can help the world.

Despite all these advances, there is so much more. Technology is advancing at such a fast pace, we can hardly keep up. Everyday, new research findings are published. Everyday, the medical field finds something new. What we have now is just the tip of the iceberg.

We may look back and shake our heads at the simplistic treatments 50 years ago... but "imagine the laughter in 2056 as people look back at the brand of medicine and public health that we consider so sophisticated today. For all that doctors have learned in the last half-century, we are ignorant about far more."