Werner Hoffmann
Moderator: Petra Schultheiß-Reimann
Until the end of the Middle Ages, Hippocratic-Galenic medicine in particular, along with Arab influences, shaped medical practice in Europe for more than 1,300 years. With the beginning of the Renaissance, a rapid and diverse cultural development began in Europe. As a result, from around the middle of the 18th century onwards, a paradigm shift gradually took place in medicine in Europe. From then on, physiological processes and diseases were explained at cellular and molecular level. As a consequence of this new perspective, there were tremendous advances in medical diagnostics and therapy, particularly over the last 180 years – and this rapid development is still continuing unabated.
This raises the question of what triggered this new dynamism and what lies behind the exponential progress of medicine today. What can we expect for the future?
