By Sherwin B. Nuland. 198 pp. New York, Random House, 2008. $25. ISBN 978-1-4000-6478-6.
The relentless "scientification" of medical training duringthe past century has laudably taken medicine far from its rootsin hucksterism. Each generation of physicians is steeped inan ever-expanding universe of medical facts. Evidence-basedmedicine, randomized, controlled trials, clinical predictionrules, and treatment algorithms reassure today's medical traineesthat physicians have indeed evolved from shamans and that weare purveyors of science, just like our colleagues who do benchresearch. In fact, the hallmark of newly minted doctors freshout of residency training is confidence — not just intheir own abilities, but in medicine itself. But as surely as. . . [Full Text of this Article]
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