Abstract
‘Medicine in the modern world’ considers the consequences for modern medicine of the topics covered in the earlier chapters, as well as the impact of cost and the implications of a profit-driven pharmaceutical industry. Themes from each chapter are still relevant today. The Hippocratic legacy is evident in the return to holism; the library has evolved into the internet, delivering information on medical advances instantly to anyone; hospitals continue to develop in response to new innovations and pressures; mass trials and questionnaires represent medicine in the community; and the public looks to laboratory medicine to come up with further life-saving drugs.
