All Of Me

Biomedical research, medical practice and commercial application of medical technology have focused upon ever smaller and more refined parts of the whole. An organ system, a hormone, a protein, an enzyme, a chemical, a gene, a vitamin, a mineral, protein, fat, carbohydrate are examined, isolated and pursued in a linear fashion. But the whole organism is an immensely complex interactive network and it becomes ever more evident that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Further, science has barely scratched the surface of knowledge about any of the parts.

Medical care suffers from incomplete knowledge about every specialty component of the field plus lack of appreciation and knowledge about the whole organism. To further complicate the situation, medical care is but a component of health, and a small one at that, which has become overstressed to the detriment of health status and the economy of the nation. It is not time to make peace with disease but it is time to organize health care with the priority upon the person, the community, maintenance of optimum health status and prevention of disease.