Bad Medicine - Doctors doing harm since Hippocrates by David Wooton

In Bad Medicine David Wootton presents an alternative view of the history of medicine. He argues that doctors had no effective treatments before 1865 and that many of the interventions of the medical profession before that date did more harm than good. He is probably right.

Most medical historians present modern medicine as the pinnacle of centuries of steady progress from ancient times. Wootton argues that most of this progress is an illusion and that crucial breakthroughs have often been ignored for hundreds of years wasting millions of lives. Doctors have often been too proud to accept new ideas and have harmed their patients with their pride. Advances have been random and there has never been a single movement of 'progressive' medicine before modern times.

In the modern era of 'evidence-based medicine' we are trying to make sure that our interventions work. As a doctor I am glad of this. Bad Medicine is an interesting read offering an opinion on the times when medicine was more an art than a science.