Sir William Ossler & Internal Medicine
By: Avantika S.
“The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.” – Sir William Ossler. Internal Medicine is a specialization that emphasizes the use of the best medical science for patients. They learn how to prevent, diagnose, and treat different diseases that impact the lives of adults. Physicians who focus on internal medicine are known as internists, and can practice either general internal medicine or take additional training in order to pursue a sub-specialty. Internal Medicine is a relatively new area within the medical field and has changed and evolved over the years.
It is impossible to talk about the history of internal medicine without mentioning Sir William Osler, also known as the father of internal medicine. He helped lay down its foundation and also played an instrumental role in developing the system of clinical and medical education that is still used today. Sir Osler obtained his medical degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, eventually found himself in Europe for his postgraduate medical training, and ended up travelling to London, Vienna, and Berlin. Not only did he encounter several accomplished scientists and physicians along the way, but he also found advanced knowledge on pathology, physiology, and bacteriology, all of which would significantly impact the clinical care of patients. He was exposed to the concept of “innere Krankheiten”, or “internal diseases”, which distinguished external diseases and diseases of the skin from other non-surgical diseases. This later on became internal medicine, or “innere Medicin” which was the study of internal diseases, something that Ossler later on introduced to the United States.
This approach to medicine was quite different from traditional methods of the time – it required a deep and detailed understanding of the fundamental sciences, mastering the physiology and pathophysiological basis of diseases, and the diagnostic, the analytical, and problem solving skills needed to apply these skills to patients and taking proper care of them. Krakheiten excluded surgery and focused primarily on the purely observational and external manifestations of disease. This emergence summarized the novel scientific-based approach that physicians at this time started taking when it came to medicine
When he returned to the States he moved to the University of Pennsylvania and later to Johns Hopkins where Ossler made his largest impact. He added a greater humanistic component to the practice of patient care and medicine by a well developed understanding of human nature itself and how a disease can impact individual lives. He engaged patients as an active part of the diagnostic process spending significant amounts of time at the bedside of a patient and stressed history and physical examination; he has at least four clinical conditions or findings that bear his name. Many of the basic models for postgraduates that Ossler introduced into clinical medical education are still used to this day. His additional accomplishments also include the development of the first housestaff system for residency training and also introduced bedside manner teaching to his medical students during his time at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, neither of the two existed prior to Osslers time in the U.S.
Internal medicine and its emphasis on fundamental scientific knowledge led to many influential discoveries in the medical world. Some achievements by accomplished internists include the; development of the oral polio vaccine by Albert Sabin, the creation of statin drugs by Michael J. Brown and Joseph Goldstein, identification of the hepatitis C virus by Harvey J. Alter, and more. Without Ossler and the advancements he made in the field of Internal medicine, this world would be vastly different.
Works Cited
American College, of Physicians. “What Makes Internal Medicine Unique.” ACP, 2021,
http://www.acponline.org/about-acp/about-internal-medicine/career-paths/medical-stude
nt-career-path/what-makes-internal-medicine-unique.
Fordtran, John S, et al. “The History of Internal Medicine at Baylor University Medical
Center, Part 1.” Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center), Baylor Health
Care System, Jan. 2004, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1200637/.
Philip A. Masters, MD. “How Internal Medicine Got Its Name.” KevinMD.com,
KevinMD.com, 22 Oct. 2019,
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2019/10/how-internal-medicine-got-its-name.html.
“Sir William Osler and Internal Medicine.” Edited by Of Physicians American College,
ACP, 2021,
http://www.acponline.org/about-acp/about-internal-medicine/sir-william-osler-and-inter
nal-medicine.
Medical Wonders 