Medicine for the millennium: the challenge of postmodernism

As the new millennium dawns, Australian society is becoming more post-modern, whereas the medical system remains increasingly modernist in its outlook. In this article, we discuss the emerging prevalence of post-modernism and examine current medical education and practice strategies, such as evidence-based medicine, from a post-modern perspective. We argue that if medicine does not respond to the ideas of post-modernism, which challenges the concepts of truth and our ability to be objective, it may become increasingly irrelevant to the needs of a changing society.