The New Modern Medicine (Original PDF from Publisher)

The New Modern Medicine (Original PDF from Publisher)

by Jonathan Fuller

Contemporary scientific medicine represents a new form of modern medicine shaped by emerging disease epidemics, evolving standards of evidence, and the growing influence of epidemiology. In this book, Jonathan Fuller offers a philosophical examination of this transformation, focusing on the rise of epidemiological medicine, which has dominated health care practice for decades.

Epidemiological medicine is a model designed to manage epidemic noncommunicable diseases such as cancer and chronic conditions. It relies heavily on evidence generated from epidemiological research, including clinical trials, and is deeply informed by epidemiological ways of thinking. The New Modern Medicine draws on resources from the philosophy of science and the philosophy of medicine to critically examine how disease and evidence are understood within this framework, highlighting challenges that emerged during the twentieth-century integration of medicine and epidemiology.

Fuller explores a wide range of topics, including the nature and historical development of modern scientific medicine; theories of contagion and cancer; the causation and classification of disease; the characteristics of chronic illnesses and mental disorders; evidence-based medicine and therapeutic prediction; medical interventions and concepts of risk; and the challenges of extrapolating findings from clinical trials to individual patients. He also addresses issues such as biased evidence, therapeutic skepticism, the foundations of personalized medicine, and emerging signs of a possible transition toward a postmodern form of medicine.

This book provides a rigorous and insightful analysis for readers interested in understanding how modern medicine has evolved and how epidemiological thinking continues to shape clinical practice, evidence, and medical decision-making