The New Paradigm in Medicine

Abstract

From the antiquity to nowadays the connection between philosophy and medicine is of substantive importance. One of the outstanding figures for medicine as Hippocrates of Kos, named “the father of medicine”, built the fundamental principals of medicine as rational endeavour. The other important figure in late antiquity – Claudius Galenus or Galen of Pergamon –made an important thesis that a good doctor is a philosopher too (work That the Best Physician is also a Philosopher). This work analyses the questions concerning contemporary relationships between philosophy and medicine today. One of the central topics is focused on contemporary criteria for medical theory, research and practice. In the beginning of the 90s, the so-called Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) formulated specific methodological features that medicine has to aspire to. Today, every field of medicine is based on the principles formulated by EBM. This gives grounds for a number of authors to talk about a "new paradigm" in medical science and practice and to base this idea on the EBM movement. The present paper will analyse the discussion of whether EBM is a paradigm according to Kuhn’s idea of a “paradigm shift”, and will critically analyse scientific change situation in the context of modern medicine (scientific and social aspects).