The superior doctor prevents sickness

Just wanted to share what I think is a great post by a doctor.

I really do believe that prevention is better than having to go through the painful + expensive process of treating and hopefully curing.

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The superior doctor prevents sickness;
The mediocre doctor attends to impending sickness;
The inferior doctor treats actual sickness;
-Old Chinese Proverb

Comments: This saying exemplifies the holistic concept of Chinese traditional medicine, whereas Western medicine focuses mainly on curative treatment. If there’s an infection, the Western-trained doctor would focus on antibiotics to knock off the bug, but Chinese medicine would attribute it to imbalance of forces in the person and focus on their general wellbeing and rectifying the imbalance. There is a greater emphasis on prevention; as seen by the omnipresent barefoot doctors promoted by Mao Tse-Tung in the 1960s.

Medical students should not forget that preventative medicine is the backbone of their role as doctors and not over-emphasize curative treatment. The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease, so said Thomas Edison.

Management staff can learn from this too : it is important to pre-empt any problems from arising; by looking out for warning signals, rather than allow untoward events to eventually happen.

Source: http://doctor2008.wordpress.com/2008/10/04/for-those-studying-medicine4/

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