Medicine and surgery--history, change and challenge

In this lecture I will discuss the history of medicine and surgery in ancient China and India, and examine the value systems underpinning medical and surgical practice in these two civilizations. I will touch on some of the enduring "Asian" values that may be abstracted from the past to ensure that modern medicine along with surgery remains first and foremost a moral activity that renders public service, and is practiced with compassion and altruism. I will outline briefly the spread of Western or allopathic medicine into Asia and the rest of the world. Finally, I will look at the challenges that confront us today with the intrusion of high technology and the market economy into the practice of our profession. I will show how this has fundamentally altered the way we practise medicine and surgery and the delivery of health care.