Stanford Initiative in Bedside Medicine: Overview
The philosophy of Stanford’s Department of Medicine is that the practice of medicine is a privilege and a calling, and that it combines both art and science. There is perhaps no better description of the scope of internal medicine than a seminal paragraph written by Tinsley Harrison in the preface to the first edition of Harrison’s Textbook of Internal Medicine published in 1950.
“No greater opportunity, responsibility or obligation can fall to the lot of a human being than to become a physician. In the care of the suffering, she needs technical skill, scientific knowledge, and human understanding. She who uses this with courage, with humility and with wisdom, will provide a unique service for her fellow beings, and will build an enduring edifice of character within herself. The physician should ask of her destiny no more than this; she should be content with no less.”
Related Articles
- New York Times 11.12.2010: Physician Revives a Dying Art: Physical Exam
- NPR:9.20.2010: The Fading Art of the Physical Exam
- Stanford Medicine: Summer 2010: The Healing Hand
- Stanford Medicine: Summer 2010: Exam Techniques Every Doctor Should Know
- Journal of General Internal Medicine: May 2010: The Physical Exam and Other Forms of Fiction: John Kugler MD and Abraham Verghese
- British Medical Journal: 2009:In Praise of Physical Examination by Abraham Verghese and Ralph Horwitz
- Gordon J Cohen Lecture Series 2009: Bedside Redux: Reclaiming Lost Territory
- NEJM 2008: Perspective: Patient as Icon by Abraham Verghese
- KQED Forum: April 27, 2009: An interview with Abraham Verghese, MD