It’s “Classical Advice!” Why Medical Education Should Go Beyond Science

This article is a reflection on a new (but ancient) definition of medicine, which considers doctors and patients alike from their complex human experiences. It explores the doctor-patient relationship as well as the practice of medicine itself through an historical lens, by examining some of the scholarship of Galen of Pergamum, the ancient Greek doctor and philosopher of the second century CE. The intention is not to give a new, definite answer, but to use an example from the past to look at the matter from a different, perhaps unusual, perspective.