End of Medicine and the Last Doctor

Medicine has been the victim of its own success. The average life span now far exceeds the biblical threescore years and ten, and most of the massive health budget is spent on trying to add a few extra years to life, without necessarily improving quality.
Ageing has been redefined as a disease and the financial burden this implies cannot be sustained. Furthermore, patients no longer want to be examined, they want an MRI. The physician is now a mélange of health professionals, part man/woman, part machine - but the machine has no compassion. The end of clinical medicine, as it has been known, is near.
In this highly readable text, the author reviews medical development and progress from ancient times to the present day. He notes that the radical changes taking place in medicine offer the hope of solving remaining medical problems, but also the disturbing prospect of hybrid forms of life.
He posits the idea that a philosophical shift will be required in terms of our response - doctors, in their changing roles; and patients, in their expectations. The triumphs and limitations of the technological age must be embraced and a new era of medicine accepted, an era where the physician no longer holds sway and where the future of health care will look very different.
The End of Medicine and the Last Doctor will be of interest to all those involved in the practice of medicine – both doctor and patient – and how this is evolving.

General Medicine/History of Medicine and Medical Biography

Sidney Lowry