Teaching the two faces of medical history

In this article, medical history is described as falling into two large classes. The first is macrohistory, the grand sweep of great events over the centuries. The second is microhistory, the small, detailed, historical development of procedures, drugs, and therapies, as well as diagnostic procedures, that provides the basis for today's treatment in medicine, pediatrics, and surgery. Knowledge of both of these aspects of medical history is essential to the safe practice of medicine, as well as to the enjoyable life of the physician or surgeon working in applied biomedical science.