Scientific medicine, also known as conventional medicine, relies on evidence-based treatments and qualifications for physicians. Technological advances in the 19th century, such as microscopes and laboratory techniques, aided in the understanding of disease. The numerical method was developed to verify treatment effectiveness, leading to the discard of previously common treatments like bloodletting. Standardization and medical licensing boards were established to ensure a strict evidence-based approach. Complementary and alternative medicine may not follow the same rules.
Scientific medicine refers to a type of medicine that developed over the last few centuries and became what we know today as conventional medicine from the 19th century onwards. Modern medicine, as it is also called, depends on scientific observations for the treatment and understanding of the human body. The discovery of the theory of germs and the infectious causes of disease was an important breakthrough for scientific medicine. Before the establishment of scientific medicine, a variety of approaches to medicine, such as bleeding and purging, were in vogue, but with the advent of evidence-based treatments, these have fallen out of favor. Fundamental to scientific medicine was the education and qualification of physicians according to scientific standards.
Technological advances in medicine in the 19th century greatly contributed to the understanding of disease in the human body. Microscopes allowed scientists to identify and describe cells and figure out which cells were abnormal in the disease. Equipment was invented that is still used in some form today, such as stethoscopes and X-ray machines. Pharmacology, the study and production of medicines, became more commercially possible than before thanks to new chemical synthesis and refinement processes during the Industrial Revolution.
Laboratory techniques, such as microscopic analysis and chemical testing of substances such as urine, also became useful to physicians during this period. Physiology, which is the study of how the body works, has also aided this process. The germ theory, which recognized the microscopic organisms that caused infectious diseases, is another important part of the scientific medical approach. Doctors also became more interested in experimental medicine and documented their attempts and outcome for other medical professionals.
Also in the 19th century, a system for verifying the effectiveness of a particular treatment was developed, called the numerical method. The results of specific treatments could be analyzed through statistics and a doctor could then see if a treatment was helpful, useless or dangerous. This evidence-control method, essential to modern clinical research, has meant that previously common treatment options such as bloodletting have been discarded and replaced with treatments for which a doctor could demonstrate efficacy.
While these advances towards scientific medicine were ongoing during the 19th century, there was no single degree in individual countries that could produce physicians working according to evidence-based medicine. Professional organizations of doctors who believed in scientific medicine over other types of medicine lobbied for people who practiced as doctors to have a qualification. Government authorities in countries that subscribed to the scientific method created medical licensing boards and approved only those educational institutions that could provide the necessary level of education and examination to students.
Standardization meant that people who practiced less strictly evidence-based medicine could not call themselves doctors or practice as doctors. In modern times, scientific medicine is also known as conventional medicine. The complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) healthcare industries do not necessarily use the same rules of the scientific method and may not have the same evidence-based approach to medicine.
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