Medicine and Art

Medicine and art? When I first looked at the topic of this week, I was like “what”. Even till now, I am still quite confused about how are this two areas related. So this made me go back to the very beginning of the class and look for the meaning of art. When I looked up the Oxford dictionary, art is very much related to creativity and imagination and not specific to visual. So far, we have been constrained to the visual arts. Thus, this week’s topic is a branching out to the less discussed side of art.

With a fresh understanding in mind, medicine and med-tech are definitely parts of art. Medical drawing “have been made possibly since the beginning of medicine”.  Human body is a complex system where organs works hand in hand. A carefully drawn medical drawing can correctly depict our internal structures. Especially when the majority of us have the common structure, these drawings allows the doctors to “see” through our body without actually opening us up. Nowadays, with the help of computer simulations and human bod
y models, doctors are able to prepare and teach complex surgical procedures without a patient suffering from that specific condition.

Medical drawings are not limited to human bodies only. In the field of medicine, medical drawings also apply to the ingredients of medicine. Maybe not so much for western medicines nowadays, but definitely important to the traditional Chinese medicine. Growing up in China, I have known some traditional Chinese medicine. Drawings of herbal medicine are often important to the practitioners to identify the correct herbal plant to use. Afterall, many plants look similar but have drastic difference in effect. Also, the usage of herbs varies based on the condition of the patient. This is called syndrome differentiation where the practitioners use their “creativity” based on the patients to issue different prescriptions. Sometimes, the prescriptions only differ by a minor change to the proportions of the herbs used.


As such, art and medicine are related closely, although not obvious. In fact, the creativities by those medical “artists” are benefiting humanities. Because of their creativity, we can have plastic surgery to help those whose face are deformed due to tragedies. Things like bionic eyes are also helping some blinds to see. So in medicine, the three cultures again joint force to make a better future.


Reference:


Frank M. Corl, Melissa R. Garland, and Elliot K. Fishman. Role of Computer Technology in Medical Illustration. American Journal of Roentgenology 2000 175:6, 1519-1524 

New Bionic Eye Allows the Blind to See Again. Dir. Neoli2300. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kvhH-Oe6sw. Accessed Apr 30 2017

Oxford Dictionary. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/art Accessed Apr 30 2017

Panda, S.C. “Medicine: Science or Art?” Mens Sana Monographs 4.1 (2006): 127–138. PMC. Web. 1 May 2017.

Shen-nong. "Common TCM Questions". http://www.shen-nong.com/eng/principles/qna13.html. Accessed Apr 30 2017

Steph. “12 Ingenious Gadgets & Technologies for the Blind | WebUrbanist.” Weburbanist. N.p. http://weburbanist.com/2010/04/05/12-ingenious-gadgets-technologies-for-the-blind/ Accessed Apr 30 2017

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