Medical literature is thescientific literature ofmedicine: articles in journals and texts in books devoted to the field of medicine. Many references to the medical literature include thehealth care literature generally, including that ofdentistry,veterinary medicine,pharmacy,nursing, and theallied health professions.
Contemporary and historic views regarding diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of medical conditions have been documented for thousands of years. TheEdwin Smith papyrus is the first known medicaltreatise. Ancient medical literature often described inflictions related to warfare.
Throughout history, people have written about diseases, howhuman beings might contract them and what could be done to remedy it. Medicine ranged from folklore and witchcraft to modernevidence-based medicine.[1][2] Among the most notable early medical descriptions are found in texts from Egypt (Edwin Smith Papyrus,Ebers Papyrus,Kahun Gynecological Papyrus),[3] Mesopotamia (Diagnostic Handbook), India (Sushruta Samhita,Charaka Samhita), China (Huangdi Neijing), Rome (De Medicina), and Greece (De Materia Medica). Important medical works in the medieval Islamic era include texts from Persia (The Canon of Medicine ofIbn Sina), Spain (Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi'sKitab al-Tasrif), Iraq (De Gradibus), and Syria (Ibn al-Nafis'Comprehensive Book on Medicine), while important medical texts from early medieval Europe include those from England (Compendium Medicinæ) and Byzantine Greece (Medical Compendium in Seven Books).
FollowingVesalius,William Harvey,Ignaz Semmelweis,Louis Pasteur, and others, the medical community have changed the way it conductsresearch. After incorporating thescientific method, medical literature has introducedpeer review, and is currently divided into journals and textbooks.
These are publications in which the medical community shares information. The common articles are original articles, reviews andcase reports.
When looking for specific information in any journal one can use theNational Library of Medicine'sPubMeddatabase.Peer reviewedjournals are ranked higher thus are a better source for medical information than non-peer reviewed journals.
Amedical manual isliterature (usually a book) describingdiagnosis,treatment,management, andprognosis of variousdisorders. The first known medical manual is theEdwin Smith papyrus of ancient Egypt.
Afterconsensus has been reached, it is incorporated intextbooks. There are textbooks on everymedical specialty and they contain comprehensive discussion on alldiseases and theirdiagnosis, therapy andprognosis. The first textbook to utilize experts to write specific chapters within the book was the Cecil Textbook of Medicine edited byRussell Cecil, MD in 1927. The book was an immediate international success because of the idea that single or double author medical books was outmoded, "since the scope of medical knowledge was far surpassing the capacity of any single individual to encompass". Since that time, this has been the standard. Examples are:
Harrison'sPrincipal of Internal Medicine is widely considered the most read textbook of medicine ever. It was able to eclipse Cecil's by changing the organization. Instead of organizing by disease,Tinsley Harrison organized the book by region and symptom, allowing students to learn the myriad causes of a patient's symptom, without first knowing the specific disease. Harrison's is also credited for a strong commitment to linking basic science to clinical medicine.[8][9]
Health-related information is often disseminated to the public via mainstream media outlets; these reports influence doctors, the general public, and the government. According to one study of 500 US health news stories, between 62 and 77% failed to adequately address costs, harms, benefits, the quality of the evidence, and the existence of other options.[10] Although medical news articles often deliver public health messages effectively, they often convey wrong or misleading information about health care, partly when reporters do not know or cannot convey the results of clinical studies, and partly when they fail to supply reasonable context.[11] Several web sites review medical journalism; examples includeHealth News Review in the U.S. and Media Doctor in Australia.[12]
Most prominent journals and textbooks are currently availableon-line or viaCD-ROM. Certain online services includingMedscape and MDLinx offer aggregated digests of new articles from prominent medical journals.