Author: Wang Chen (Vice President of Chinese Academy of Engineering, President of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, President of Peking Union Medical College)
Medical students should have a relatively complete and in-depth understanding of medicine. But what exactly does medicine and the closely related hygiene and health mean? What are the connections and differences between medicine, hygiene, and health? Did you really realize it after studying medicine? This is a basic question about academic theory. Although basic, it still needs to be clarified.
A doctor from the First Hospital of Quanzhou City, Fujian Province (first from left) communicated with a doctor from Tongxin County People’s Hospital in Ningxia.Xinhua News Agency
What are the concepts of medicine, hygiene, and health, and how are they related?
■Medicine must have a strong consciousness, and then transform it into realistic actions, paying attention to and pursuing the health of the group
■Hygiene corresponds to medicine, including five aspects of “prevention, diagnosis, control, treatment, and health“. The two are connected
■Health is the goal and result of medicine and hygiene, with goal, result, and people’s livelihood as the main attributes
The main attributes of medicine are academic and technical. What it does is learning, focusing on discovering and revealing the laws of nature, and inventing and innovating practical technologies. But the academic and technical aspects of medicine are by no means limited to biology or life sciences. The content of life sciences is indeed the main foundation and backbone of medicine, but it is far from all.
Medicine is “multi-learning” and “human-learning”. The so-called “multi-learning” includes three inter-university systems: one is natural science (including life science, etc.), the second is social science, and the third is humanities. Medicine is an academic and technical system about maintaining the health and life of people, populations, and human beings, which is a combination of the three. Care for people and the pursuit of the ultimate interests of people are the purpose of medicine. Therefore, medicine is still “human studies.” When we study medicine, we must study mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, etc., but also explore many social science issues, including economics, sociology, political science, law, history, management, etc., as well as humanities. Such as art, ethics, etc. Most of the students of Union Medical College receive education in science and technology related to life sciences. Our education in humanities and social sciences is far from enough. Therefore, after leaving the campus, in addition to continuing to learn life science and technology related content, we must also special Attention should be paid to enriching relevant knowledge and abilities in social sciences and humanities.
Medicine includes five aspects of “prevention, diagnosis, control, treatment, and health“. The so-called “prevention” means prevention, that is, preventing the disease; the so-called “diagnosis” means the diagnosis, that is, knowing the disease, what kind of disease, and how serious the disease is. The so-called “control” means controlling, that is, preventing small lesions and serious diseases. , To prevent a person’s illness from spreading to others or a group of people; the so-called “treatment” means treatment, that is, to correct the patient’s pathological or pathophysiological state; the so-called “health” means rehabilitation, which means that acute illness can speed up recovery, and chronic disease Mobilize the body’s ability and compensation when it exists, so that its physical, psychological and social adaptability can be maintained and improved. Medicine maintains health from the above five aspects. The five aspects are integrated, complementary and inseparable.
According to the difference of focus and focus, medicine can be divided into two categories: one is clinical medicine focusing on individual health problems; the other is group medicine focusing on and focusing on maximizing the health benefits of groups and even humans. Both types of medicine include the content of “prevention, diagnosis, control, treatment, and health“. Medicine pays attention to both the individual and the group. But we have to admit that in the past, medicine, especially its main bearer doctors, was more focused on individual patients, and more confined to the present, while the attention, awareness, and actions for group health and the long-term health of the population were far from insufficient. Therefore, the medical profession, especially doctors and nurses, must have a new concept, new concept, and new consciousness, and then transform it into a new action-paying attention to and pursuing the health of the group, paying attention to and pursuing a population and a country , The health of a nation and even the whole mankind. As a result, group medicine came into being: group medicine is the integration and application of knowledge and principles of contemporary medicine and related disciplines, based on realistic and accessible health resources, coordinating individual health behaviors and group health actions, and achieving overall and long-term health benefits of the population An emerging medical discipline to maximize. There is reason to believe that the rise of group medicine will profoundly change the concept and outlook of modern medicine.
In what ways does medicine maintain and improve the health of individuals, groups, and even the entire human race? That is hygiene. Hygiene is the multiple actions taken to maintain health based on medical principles. Health includes individual behavior, group and social actions, serving personal health and group and public health respectively. Clinical medicine is the medical basis of individual health, and group medicine is the medical basis of public health. The social rules that guide and guide health actions are health policies. For example, medications and operations after illness are hygienic behaviors based on medical principles. In addition to technical factors, they are affected by many social factors; when medicine comes to the medical conclusion that pathogens infect the human body are an important cause of disease After that, the hygienic measures taken by him, such as washing hands frequently, wearing masks, maintaining social distancing, and implementing anti-epidemic laws and management measures, are all hygienic actions.
Hygiene corresponds to medicine, including five aspects of “prevention, diagnosis, control, treatment, and health“, and the two are connected. It’s just that medicine mainly focuses on the academic and technical issues in it, and provides a medical foundation or basis for health actions; while health care focuses on how to transform these five aspects into practical actions and achieve practical results, involving a large number of social, political, economic and other issues. It is hoped that medical students can discover, invent, create, and advance in the aspect of “prevention, diagnosis, control, treatment, and health“, whether from a medical perspective or from a health perspective.
Health has outstanding diversity, and the health system is a comprehensive social system. Hygiene is based on medical principles, but is far from limited to medicine. Carrying out health actions requires a variety of conditions other than medicine, mobilization of personal and social resources, and payment of the necessary costs, as well as a variety of social support and social management. Take the vaccination as an example. How many factors are affected by this health action? It is affected by the level of medical development, product development capabilities, vaccine production capabilities, economic support capabilities, cold chain transportation systems, vaccination capabilities, health management capabilities, and so on. Health has never been a purely medical problem. It is closely related to multiple factors such as politics, economy, law, social management, education, psychology, cultural customs and so on.
Health is the goal and result of medicine and hygiene, with goals, results, and people’s livelihood as the main attributes. One result of sanitation actions based on medical principles is health. The World Health Organization advocates “Health in All Policies”, and my country’s health policy is also “Integrating health into all policies.” Health issues must enter all disciplines, policies, and industries. Similarly, all disciplines, policies, and industries should also serve health, which is the ultimate welfare of mankind, that is, “everything to learn, every policy, and every act of health.” The president of the World Medical Association said, “All ministers are’health ministers'”, and health can be done well. People in the medical profession must know how to collaborate with society in order to achieve the health and well-being of the people.
A medical staff gave a thumbs up in front of the Fangcai Hospital of Wuhan Sports Center to cheer for himself and his companions (photographed on February 12, 2020).Xinhua News Agency
Doctor “DNA”
■Respect science and help humanity
■Take the world as our mission
■Combining nobility in simplicity
■Help all living beings seek well-being
The school motto of “Science for Humanity” of Union Medical College points out the school’s intention and purpose, namely respecting science, relying on science, following science, developing science, and taking science as the basis and path to achieve humanitarian goals. Union Medical College took the lead in the rise of scientific medicine in China, which brought China into the era of modern medicine. Although medicine has many models, the core and mainstream of modern medicine is scientific medicine.
Medical students should embody the nobility of thought and spirit in simple behavior. Do not seek luxury, but seek reasonable and practical. Never “grooming”, never “being coy”, never boasting or welcoming, never selling fame, never deceiving the world. Do everything well and treat everyone sincerely. He is serious in his studies, cautious in writing, and saves people’s strength. Create a noble personality with a simple attitude and behavior to achieve a noble life.
Those who study medicine should have the minds of scholars and the feelings of family and country of “taking the world as one’s own responsibility” and “although tens of thousands of people, I am going to go”. When a person has ambitions, his thinking is different, his behavior is also different, and his eyes are different. Doctors consider not only themselves, not just the patients and industries around them, but also society, the country and the world. Only by becoming a nation can you be successful in yourself.
Everything for the lives and health of the people, paying attention to the group, caring for the people is the purpose of the Chinese Communist Party’s health work, the purpose of the Chinese medical profession, and the concepts and actions that medical students must uphold. In addition to the rise of group medicine, the international academic community is gradually developing the past international health disciplines into global health disciplines. International health focuses on attention and assistance to health problems in low- and middle-income countries, and achieves goals through bilateral cooperation, while global health focuses on Pay attention to all possible cross-border health problems and their direct or indirect influence factors, and solving these problems often requires global cooperation. Only those who bear the responsibility of the world can be respected by the world.
“Compassion, focus, and introspection” is the school spirit of Union Medical College. “Compassion” is the original intention of becoming a great doctor of suffering, “focus” is the attitude of helping people, and “introspection” is a guarantee mechanism for avoiding mistakes in the work of medicine, which requires the most demanding imperfection. The ultimate well-being of individuals and human beings is health and life. Medical students must not only help each specific patient, but also take on the responsibility of safeguarding the health of the people and human beings.
Doctors are by no means merely professionals and technicians of pure natural sciences. Must have a diversified academic system, must master natural sciences, especially life sciences, must master economics, law, management, and other social sciences that are closely related to health, and must master humanities and arts related knowledge. It must be known that health is both physical and psychological, or socially adaptive. Only the health of the group can constitute the health of the group. Only by training special wisdom, special perseverance, and special abilities can one assume the responsibility of maintaining life and health.
Be fair in your heart and be honest in doing things
■The biggest cost is time cost, the greatest happiness is inner peace, and the greatest wisdom is inner strength
■We must get rid of the inner “private” and phenotypic “vacuum”, with the belief that “the world is the public” in the heart
Ask yourself, can we be branded with the value of life at every point in time? The most important thing for a medical student to “calculate and calculate” is time. In life, the greatest cost is time cost, the greatest happiness is inner peace, and the greatest wisdom is inner strength. Time is the carrier of everything, and it is gone, so you need to cherish it, and give things away.
Everyone has to be different from a small number of people in society. In biological language, a significant “private” character is constructed on the genome code of such people, and the functional protein expressed reflects a large “virtual” character. The inner “privacy” and the phenotypic “virtual” make his thinking full of utilitarianism, and his work is more performant, forming a unique “landscape”. The words “private” and “virtual” must be eliminated. We must cherish the belief that “the world is for the public”. Mr. Zhongshan’s spirit of “the world is for the public” and the Communists’ spirit of “serving the people” should be reflected in us. It would be terrible to be a doctor if you have this tendency to “private” and “virtually”. Really discovering new laws in science, realizing real knowledge and cultivating real abilities in teaching, and realizing life and health in medical treatment. This is the true pursuit of medical students, not for their own purposes. Show it to others. This is very, very important.
(This article is based on the author’s speech at the school’s 2021 graduation ceremony, and has been abridged; the title is added by the editor)
“Guangming Daily” (July 18, 2021 06 edition)
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责编：张倩 ]
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