You might not be a medical student, a doctor, a surgeon or a paramedic, but this is an avenue for you to pip into the medical world. The medical world is a world of human science with lots of extensive theories backed up with facts.

Medicine is the science of diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

It is more of art than it is science. Lets put it on a percentage; 40% art and 60% science.

In the medical world, doctors are introduced extensively to the human body, studying it from different perspective but yet, still linking to each other. 

We have many branches of medicine which I'll introduce to you shortly.

First, 

WHAT IS MEDICINE?

Medicine is a branch of biological science concerned with the human body, care, diagnosis and treatment of disease and overall maintenance of positive health. People who study Medicine are called Doctors (Medical Doctors). 

They are licensed to:

• Treat people
• Attend to people in hospital
• Advice people medically
• Prescribe and give drugs and injections etc

Medicine existed for thousands of years of which it was majorly an art; medical practitioners then apply herbs and pray to God or gods making it also more religious (which is an art). They arer known as babalawo in Nigeria

and Inyanga in South-Africa. They obviously still exist today using nature and prayers for their healing art. 

However, the art of medicine has evolved with the application of science to solving what were mysteries. Now, Medicine is now taught as a professional course with lots of researches to broaden the knowledge of man, micro-organisms, diseases and treatments. Agriculture and medical technology has also improved, so also are people considering and taking medical advice.

BRANCHES OF MEDICINE 

Medicine has three main branches; 

• Basic Medical Sciences
• Medical Specialties
• Interdisciplinary Field

So I'll be dwelling more on the Basic Medical Sciences for now, but before I go deep into it, lets see what the other two branches of Medicine are.

MEDICAL SPECIALTIES

This has to do with medical practice; in this branch of medicine, it's either you are a surgeon or a internal medical doctor. So we can say specialty is a branch of medical practice. It can be classified along several axis:

1. Surgical or Internal Medicine: 

Which means its either you operate on people or you are just an internal medical doctor. These specialties also have their sub-specialties.

Surgery common Sub-Specialties

• General Surgery
• Plastic Surgery
• Pediatric Surgery
• Transplant Surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Trauma Surgery
• Orthopedic Surgery
• Cardiovascular Surgery
• Opthalmic Surgery

Internal Medicine common Sub-Specialties

• Hematology
• Nephrotology
• Neurology
• Endocrinology
• Gastroenterology
• Pulmonology
• Sport Medicine
• Rheumatology
• Cardiology
• Angiology

2. Organ based or Technique based:

Most specialties are based on organs while some are based on a set of techniques like the Radiologist. 

3. Diagnostic or Therapeutic

This is a branch that deals with diagnosis or treatment of disease.

4. Age range of Patient: 

Example is the pediatrician who is limited to seeing patient of a particular age range (Children and babies). He/She could hold a further sub specialty even in the age range.

INTERDISCIPLINARY FIELDS

These branch of medicine not only involve the science of medicine but also include other disciplines. Examples are:

• Addiction Medicine
• Aerospace Medicine
• Gender based Medicine
• Laser Medicine
• Evolutionary Medicine
• Hospital Medicine
• Forensic Medicine
• Veterinary Medicine
• Travel Medicine

BASIC MEDICAL SCIENCES

This is where I'll be dwelling on more for the mean time. These biological sciences are the basic units of medicine. 

They include:

• Anatomy
• Biochemistry
• Physiology
• Embryology
• Histology
• Cytology 
• Medical Microbiology
• Immunology
• Endocrinology
• Neuroscience
• Neuroanatomy
• Toxicity etc

ANATOMY

Anatomy is a very interesting branch of Medicine that deals with the visible structures of the human body.

It is sub-divided into three:

• Gross Anatomy: Which deals with the visible art of the human body.
• Histology: This deals with the microscopic structures of the human body. This goes down to level of tissue and cells. 
• Embryology: This deals with the study of fetus and embryo right from conception until parturition (birth).

Gross Anatomy is a very wide course dealing with the structures of the human body at a level which can be seen with the naked eyes. Students have since testify of how voluminous it is and how important it is to the overall study of medicine. In this course, student undergo dissection of the human body (Dead people called Cadavers). This essential in understanding the human body, it also helps in appreciating variations people. These variations can be due to pathology (disease), gender, age or embryological difference.

Histology goes further to study these structures of the body at a microscopic level. This helps to understand why and how the body function the way they do. Student often hate this course because of how difficult it is in differentiating structures and cells from each other from histological slides.

In my next article, I will be introducing Anatomy afresh, dwelling more on its origin, importance and introduction its territory. Most of the words in medicine are from anatomy and it would be nice to know how the body is structured.

Further Reading:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specialty_(medicine) 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine

Read Also:

• Hematopoeisis, Looking into how the body produces blood.
• The Malaria Epidemic: Meaning cause treatment and prevention

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