In medicine, we are generally concerned about diseases/cure, prevention/treatment of various illnesses, and the way health care is delivered. To each patient, timely and effective medical care can be a case of life and death. Thanks to modern medicine in the form of new treatments and therapies within the universal health care system, that we as Canadians are healthier than we were in the past. This is not to say, that we have all the medical answers, such as cure for diabetes, cancer, or AIDS. However, it does mean we as a nation are improving and are able to work towards finding the right answers thanks to the encouragement by our historical accomplishments in medicine. Indeed, we have a very impressive medical history record. Dating back to the confederation of Canada (1867), our doctors, researchers, patients and also politicians have worked with each other to improve medical practices. This allowed us to see changes due to implementation of new styles of medical practice, important medical discoveries, innovative teaching, and the re-shaping of our health care.
English: This is an oil painting of Sir Frederick ...
English: Frederick Banting ca. 1920–1925 in Toro...
Sir Frederick G. Banting Research CentreVery important figures whom we should always remember are Sir William Osler, Dr. Norman Bethune, and Sir Frederick Banting with Dr. Charles Best. They and many others have left an unforgettable mark in the advancement of medicine and improvement of health care services which we can all appreciate today.
Sir William Osler (1849-1919) started out as a physician who was named one of the greatest icons of modern medicine, the Father of Modern Medicine, which is actually what he himself considered Avicenna (980-1037) to be. This acknowledgement put him as one of the more famous Canadian physician in the world. Many instances in his works, he quotes the Hippocratic Oath because he believed medicine was built on 1000 years of collection. He had initially...