Medicine is ever changing, so also medical practitioners

Medicine is arguably the noblest profession in the world. In this country, people equate doctors with divinity: doctors save lives and ease suffering. Doctors are trusted more than anybody else and are believed to do their best. But do we really? Open any book of Medicine, it gives a disclaimer at the beginning - "Medicine is ever changing, we are not responsible for...... But I say and lsquo;'its not Medicine that is changing as much as its practitioners''. In the pre-industrialization era, doctors would diagnose conditions on clinical examination alone. What change did the advent of technology and development bring to the medical field? Today, the computer may be slowly taking the place of a doctor. Some software can do just that: type your symptoms into the computer and it will guide you with differential diagnosis, points of exclusion, investigations followed by the treatment. The advent of technology is devaluing the art of clinical examination. Is this movement in the right direction? My answer is No. Many teaching set-ups have meager clinical material, and stretch regulations. Rampant corruption by supervising and governing bodies, are producing doctors who rely more on technology than on clinical clues. Technology should never take the place of clinical examination but rather should help in confirming the clinical diagnosis and in providing additional information for therapeutic and prognostic purposes.