The Story of Systems Medicine

Modern medicine has brought some amazing advancements. The development of antibiotics. Increasingly sophisticated and targeted cancer treatments. Medical imaging techniques, like PET scans and MRIs. Cardiac surgery, organ transplantation, and minimally invasive surgery. These advancements have led to increased life expectancy and have enhanced quality of life for many people.

The greatest strength of modern medicine, though, can also be its greatest weakness: the challenge of greater and greater specialization and precision. We seek to understand things by taking them apart, down to their most basic elements, studying individual genes, proteins, or molecules in isolation. In doing so, we run the risk of losing sight of the big picture.

This is where systems medicine comes in.