Yo Doc... Ya Gotta Help Me

"I've got a stomach ache;" "I don't feel too well;" "I've been having these symptoms a few times now, maybe I should see a..." I am sure many of you know how that sentence concludes - old Joe six-pack (if I may steal a line from the 2008 campaign) seeking comfort in the fact that a quick appointment, subsequent check up, and a prescription or two (if he's lucky) from the man in the tie and shiny white coat will fix things right up.

These innate inclinations to seek the aid of a physician are neither by-products of formal institutions that provide a thorough, challenging, extensive and expensive education nor notions that these "doctors" are successful, noble, caring, rich and intelligent. The answer is more evolutionary than revolutionary - a practice spanning centuries and millenniums that can stretch beyond logic and mere steps of diagnosis/treatment/cure into the realm of magic, prayer and nature. While skills such as nursing, physician assistants, and public health professionals undoubtedly have a vital role in shaping health care across the globe, these titles have not been etched into our evolutionary being and are not part of our "physikos" (meaning nature/natural; where the word "physician" is derived from).

The history of medicine is profound, to say the least. From prehistoric practices of herbalism as far back as 25,000 BC, to Egyptian and Babylonian medicine that dealt with the supernatural, first accounts of surgery and the introduction of texts for diagnosis and prognosis, to Greek and Roman practices, to modern medicine - the journey is a long one. Today, we have reached the "here" and "now," where gods and demons, plants and animals, faith and witchcraft, technology and experimentation have changed and transformed medicine over thousands of years. The high status of an MD which overshadows all other health care professions can be accounted for by this history; this evolution. The Darwinian argument would suggest that its high praise is deserving based solely on the fact that it was survival of the fittest, and the MD sliced and diced his way through the top over thousands of years.