medical humanities is a group of disciplines that discuss the origin, value, norms and other social and cultural phenomena related to medicine, including medical history, medical philosophy, medical ethics, health law, health economics and medical sociology. Since the 197s, with the transformation of medical model from biomedical model to "physiological-psychological-social" medical model, and the discussion on the "purpose and value" of medicine has become a hot spot, the teaching and research of medical humanities in China have become a craze, and some medical colleges have started teaching medical humanities one after another, and some works on medical humanities have also come out one after another. From scratch, from small to large, Chinese medical humanities have made great progress in this upsurge. However, there are still many shortcomings in the development of medical humanities in China during this period, such as its isolated and one-dimensional development, lack of inter-disciplinary communication and integration, failure to form a medical humanities discipline group that matches medicine, and failure to give full play to the role of medical humanities in medical development. As Professor Zhang Daqing of Peking University Medical History Research Center said in "An Inquiry into the Reasons that Restrict the Development of Medical Humanities in China", "Ironically, medicine has made brilliant achievements in the 2th century, but now the atmosphere of disappointment and doubt about medicine is even stronger". The cheer for the new progress of medicine no longer exists. "What exists is the growing fear of the possible consequences of the development of genetic engineering and biotechnology, dissatisfaction with the impersonal tendency of medical care, and criticism of the unbearable medical expenses and unfair distribution of health resources." This is a portrayal of the consequences of the failure of medical humanities to solve the problems in the process of medical development in time, which also shows the practical necessity of strengthening the construction of medical humanities. Standing at the beginning of the 21st century, when we are cheering or lamenting the medical gains and losses in the 2th century, we have to look to the future full of challenges and vitality. Under the new situation of the new century, China must strengthen the construction of medical humanities.
First of all, medicine, as a science facing people directly, emphasizes humanistic care more than other sciences.
"People-oriented science and technology" is the ultimate goal of the development of science and technology. The value of science and technology will ultimately be reflected by people's production and living conditions and measured by the degree of civilization of human society. Therefore, we should emphasize the social attributes of science and technology, highlight the humanistic value of science and technology, and prevent the "anomie" or "alienation" of science and technology. As Professor Yang Shuzi, an academician of China Academy of Sciences and former president of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, once pointed out: Science is seeking truth, and the question to be answered is "What is it? Why? " ; Humanism is good, and the question to be answered is "What should it be? What should I do? " . Scientific activities themselves cannot guarantee that their development and application are conducive to human progress, and humanistic activities cannot guarantee that they are based on objective laws. Therefore, humanities must be based on science, and science must be guided by humanities. Without humanistic guidance, science and technology are either of no value to mankind or can only bring disaster to mankind.
besides the general attributes of science and technology, medicine also has its particularity. Its particularity lies in that medicine is a science that directly faces people, that is, it studies the object with people and directly serves people. Medicine emphasizes humanistic care more than any other science, and requires medical workers to have perfect human nature cultivation. Hippocrates, the father of western medicine, thinks that "medical skill is the most beautiful and noble of all technologies" and that "a doctor should have all the qualities of an excellent philosopher: altruism, enthusiasm, modesty and calm judgment. Yangquan in Nanqi, ancient China, pointed out in "Theory of Things: On Medicine": "A doctor is not a benevolent person, and cannot be trusted, intelligent, reasonable, irresponsible, incorruptible, and untrustworthy. It is based on the ancient use of medicine, and after choosing a surname, its virtue can be benevolent and fraternity. " This shows that "benevolence" and "reason" are the necessary conditions for "doctor", and "doctor" is a model of combining science and technology with humanistic spirit. China is known as "the country of humanities and scholarship", and humanistic care has always been an important connotation of traditional medicine in China. Traditional Chinese medicine attaches great importance to the ethical value of medical practice. Medical activities focus on patients rather than diseases, and treat patients as a whole person rather than a damaged machine. In the process of diagnosis and treatment, respect and care for patients run through, and emotional communication with patients is advocated, which fully embodies the basic principle of "medicine is benevolence".
whether it is science and technology with * * * or medicine with particularity, whether it is the discussion of ancient philosophers or the expectation of people today, the ideal model of medicine is "the combination of science and technology and humanistic spirit".
after entering the 2th century, with the rapid development of science and technology, medicine has also developed rapidly, and modern diagnosis and treatment equipment and drugs can be described as dizzying. The advancement of medical equipment and drugs is a manifestation of the modernization of medical technology and an important condition for improving human health, which is understandable in itself. However, the publicity of "technology is omnipotent" and "technology is the best" has made today's medicine dehumanize. The object of medical work is no longer the patient, but the disease; The patient is no longer a complete and emotional person, but a machine that needs to be repaired or replaced; Doctors, patients and even the whole society are immersed in the modern superstition of "advanced equipment and drugs to ensure health". This is "medical alienation" under the guidance of technical perfectionism, which shows that medicine has gradually deviated from its inherent value standards and behavioral norms and is violating the basic principle of "people-oriented science and technology". "Medical alienation" does not necessarily bring us health and happiness, but "new drugs" that are not necessarily effective, unnecessary operations and expensive medical expenses. It is reported that 3 ~ 4% of the operations should not be performed. Among thousands of drugs, only 1% are truly effective, 3% are dispensable and 6% are totally ineffective. ② In addition, there are more and more medical accidents and medical disputes caused by misdiagnosis, "starting with money", from ruin's medical ethics anomie, dirty transactions in the sales of drugs and medical devices, and other corruption phenomena existing in the medical and health front. These are the serious consequences of the separation between medicine and humanistic spirit, which will not only benefit the improvement of people's health, but will eventually constrain the development of medicine itself. Therefore, modern medicine calls for the return of humanistic spirit and the perfect combination of medicine and humanities.
many social problems encountered or appeared in the development of medicine are difficult to explain and solve by medicine itself, so it has to resort to relevant humanities and social sciences. For example, when the economic interests or rules and regulations of the hospital conflict with the responsibility of saving lives; When the doctor-patient relationship is tense until a medical dispute occurs; When people criticize the unfair distribution of health resources; When the new progress of medicine brings impact to traditional ethics and leads to new panic; Where will medicine go? How will people choose? These problems have to be solved by interdisciplinary subjects such as medical sociology, medical ethics, health law, health economics and medical philosophy. Therefore, whether from the perspective of improving human health or from the perspective of medical development, we must strengthen the construction of medical humanities. While constructing a modern medical model with perfect combination of medicine and humanities, it promotes the civilization of human society.
Secondly, the cultivation of new medical talents in the new century and new situation is inseparable from the construction of medical humanities.
Fromm once pointed out that "the problem in the 19th century was that God died, and the problem in the 2th century was that human beings died". Indeed, in the 2th century after breaking the shackles of theology, human beings created more material wealth than the sum of the material wealth created by human beings before. The speed of scientific and technological progress is faster than any previous period. This is a miracle of human history, but it is also this miracle that has caused the tragedy of mankind itself-material has drowned humanity, and technology has replaced humanity. Looking back on the gains and losses of the 2th century, we have made clear the responsibility of the 21st century: to return to humanity and find back humanity. Of course, this does not require us to abandon science and technology and reject the material wealth brought by scientific and technological progress, but to inject humanistic spirit into science and technology, pay attention to human cultivation in material pursuit, and realize the perfect combination of science and technology with humanity and material with humanity.
the new century and new mission require a new generation of people. How to cultivate new people who can shoulder new missions in the new century? Of course, we must rely on a complete education that combines science with humanities. In the 2th century, New China, suffering from endless disasters caused by backward science and technology, longed for the progress of science and technology, put forward the view that the key to realize modernization is "modernization of science and technology", and called on the whole country and Qi Xin to work together to realize the modernization of science and technology. In this context, China has naturally chosen the scientific education mode for talent training. However, in the 21st century, people are changing from one-sided pursuit of intellectual development to all-round development of human beings, and human society is also changing from one-sided pursuit of economic development to all-round development of society. These changes require that education (the premise of realizing all-round development of human beings and all-round progress of society) must also change, that is, from simple scientific education to complete education combining science and humanities. As far as medicine is concerned, although people realized the important position of social factors and psychological factors in medicine at the end of the 2th century, they also proposed that the medical model should be changed from biomedical model to "physiological-psychological-social" medical model, but by the 21st century, this change has not really been realized. By the end of 213, most medical workers were deeply superstitious about the traditional biomedical model. Although some people in some medical colleges and medical and health institutions called for paying attention to the teaching and research of the interdisciplinary subjects of medicine and humanities and social sciences, few people responded. To truly realize the transformation of medical model and the perfect combination of medicine and humanities, it is necessary to cultivate a large number of new medical talents with high-tech medical professional knowledge and skills and rich and profound humanistic knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the construction of medical humanities, bring the interdisciplinary courses of humanities and social sciences, especially those related to medicine, into the teaching plan of medical education, and implement a complete medical education (education combining medical science with medical humanities).
The 21st century is also an open century, and the world is changing from regional to global. In the process of this transformation, China's contact with the outside world will become more and more frequent, especially after joining the WTO, China will participate in international exchanges and international competition in an all-round way. After joining WTO, the protection of intellectual property rights will be more strictly implemented, and it will be illegal to counterfeit products within the patent period; Reduce tariffs and remove quantitative restrictions on imports, allowing foreign goods to enter the domestic market to compete with domestic products; And the opening of service trade have put forward new requirements for China's medical and health undertakings. For example, according to China's commitment to reduce tariffs after China's entry into WTO, the average tariff rate of imported pharmaceutical products in China will be gradually reduced from 2, and non-tariff measures such as drug import license system will be gradually abolished. In terms of service trade, China promised to open the distribution service of drugs on January 1, 23, and cancel the geographical and quantitative restrictions. Foreign businessmen can engage in procurement, warehousing, transportation, distribution, wholesale, retail and after-sales service in China. In addition, foreign businessmen will be able to set up joint ventures and cooperative medical and dental services, and they can hold shares. The work of foreign doctors with certificates in China will be extended from half a year to one year. It can be seen that after China's entry into WTO, the implementation of intellectual property agreements, tariff reduction and elimination, and the implementation of the General Agreement on Trade in Services will have an all-round impact on R&D, production, circulation (including wholesale and retail, import and export) and even medical services in China's pharmaceutical field. China's medical and health undertakings should be in an invincible position in the international communication and competition in the new century, which requires a large number of new medical talents with innovative consciousness, legal consciousness, competitive consciousness and service consciousness. Such medical talents can only be cultivated through a complete medical education that combines medical science with medical humanities.
strengthening the construction of medical humanities is an important way to implement complete medical education, that is, in addition to basic and specialized courses, the teaching plan also includes interdisciplinary subjects such as medical sociology, medical ethics, health law, health economics and other humanities and social science courses, so as to integrate the training effects of different disciplines (courses) on different aspects of talent quality and cultivate medical talents with all-round quality.
Thirdly, strengthening the construction of medical humanities is also the need to adapt to the development trend of world science.
Someone once predicted that "soft science will lead the new scientific trend in the future". In the 21st century, with the rapid development of science and technology, people pay more attention to the study of humanities and social sciences and the interdisciplinary between natural science and humanities and social sciences. As early as 199, the United Nations Development Programme published a United Nations report on human development, which put forward the concept of "human development" and pointed out that human development (the comprehensive development of human health and longevity, educational opportunities, living standards, living environment and freedom) is an important indicator to measure a country's comprehensive national strength. This shows that the progress of science and technology does not necessarily mean the progress of human society, but the development of humanities is the symbol of human civilization. Therefore, while developing science and technology, many countries in the world strengthen the construction of humanities and social sciences, especially the interdisciplinary construction of natural science and humanities and social sciences, so as to fully improve their humanistic development level.
in medicine, because medicine is a science that directly faces people, the development of medicine and medical humanities has a direct impact on the level of humanistic development, so countries all over the world pay special attention to the development of medical humanities. Some countries have established medical humanities research institutions in medical colleges and universities. In the United States alone, there are many well-known universities or their medical schools with research and teaching institutions for medical humanities and social sciences, such as: (Columbia University College of Physicians and Students) Center for the study of society and medicine; （NYU School of Medicine）Center for Medical Humanities； （University of Texas Medical Branch）The Institute for the Medical Humanities; （University of Buffalo）Center for Clinical Ethics and Humanities in Health Care； (Michigan State University) Center for Ethics and Humanity in Life Sciences, etc. Some journals on medical humanities have also had a great influence around the world, such as: Journal of Medical Humanities; Literature and Medicine; Medical humanities; A literary