Senior co-editors:
A. Reema Kar and Ramez Ethnasios
2008 theme: What is the Best Medicine
With the development of miracle drugs, molecular diagnostics, and innovative surgeries, science and technology are revolutionizing modern health care at an astonishing pace. The price of progress, however, can be a loss of perspective. It has become increasingly difficult to reconcile the new emphasis on evidence-based practice with the traditional importance of the human connection between patient and physician. In the context of this paradigm shift, we must not lose sight of our basic purpose: to search for the best medicine.
How do we define the best medicine? Is it love or compassion? Laughter or hope? Faith or friendship? It is not simply one of these, but all of them. It varies as widely as each patient, constituting a form of customized therapy that even genetic engineering has not achieved. Even in the smallest doses, it fulfills unspoken needs and relieves unseen symptoms. Discovering the best medicine is a journey for the doctor as much as for the patient, an important goal from both sides of a clinical encounter. It is both a collective experience meant to be shared with friends and family and an individual quest for understanding. Through photography, art, poetry, prose, and music, you have shared unique insights into the type of medicine that cannot be taught but must be experienced. Thank you for your creativity, enthusiasm, spirit, and support. We hope you will find as much inspiration and enjoyment in this issue of Wild Onions as we have.