Main Characteristics of Medieval Medical Education and Its Legacy In Contemporary Medical Education
Keywords:
Medical teaching, middle ages, salerno medical school, first universities, medical licenses, intellectual systematizationAbstract
The Middle Ages was a period characterized by great religious influence on medical education and the practice of the medical profession. Although it marked a period of clerical intellectual hegemony and deliberate forgetting of Greco-Roman texts, it promoted the development of the systematization of medical education with the creation of the Cathedral schools, the Medical Schools, the Studium Generale, and later the universities. At the same time, the practice of medicine was regulated with the creation of the licensing system. The foundation of the first European hospitals, initially with religious foundational endorsement, and later promoted by the monarchy and patrons, organized medical assistance. Then, they were the place chosen for the development of the practices of the medical students. In conclusion, the three main inheritances received from the middle ages with respect to medical education and practice were: the creation of universities, the medical licenses requirement, and the expansion of hospitals.
