Internal medicine, art and science in the third millennium

Abstract

Internal medicine, art and science in the third millennium is a statement that Medicine is not only science. It acts on the sick individual to reestablish a natural state as a curative art. Medical art, commissioned by an individual or a society, is service. It requires vocation to obtain satisfaction. However due to the incidence of value changes, market globalization, technological and industrial development, the patient/physician relationship is becoming a user/provider relationship. Physician-related factors such as a higher health care demand, resource shortage and a progressive specialization have also influenced this change of paradigm. This is causing dissatisfaction, loss of self-esteem and a lower ethical commitment among professionals. We need to recover a professional repertoire of ideas in the context of a global ethics. Responsibility and co-responsibility are ethical principles addressed to technological civilizations and their collateral effects on people and environment that lead to a "responsible globalization". We also need a scientific futurology to define risks and avoid errors. In this era of progressive specialization, Internal Medicine, with its holistic vision of mankind, may play a fundamental role in the field of bioethics.