Spirituality in medicine: a surgeon's perspective

Technological advances over the past 50 years have contributed to change the focus of medicine from a caring, nurturing model to a technological, evidence-based, result-oriented model. Lost in this "Brave New World" of technology is the role of human spirituality. Just how ones' own faith and/or spiritual well-being affects ones' own health has only recently regained the attention of the medical community. Whether faith and spirituality, as independent factors, affect measurable outcomes in healthcare is certainly a difficult task to prove (or disprove, for that matter). This is especially true in the surgical specialties, where successes and failures are usually readily quite apparent.