History as a medical tool.

摘要

The dominant view in medicine until recently was that, although history is interesting, its use is didactic, to remind practitioners of past successes and failures. But a new generation of medical historians, often trained in both medicine and history, has argued that an applied history of medicine can serve as an importanttool in medical research. These practitioner-historians often participate as members of collaborative interdisciplinary teams searching for more effective interventions or for clues to the cause of elusive disorders. An examination of two very different elusive syndromes, Tourette's syndrome and Kawasaki's disease, illustrates how a medically informed historical perspective can provide a useful tool, opening new directions for identification of aetiological clues.