The clinical method and the growing technological presence in cardiology: Are they mutually exclusive?

Abstract

Hippocrates was the one who gave life to the clinical method, by insisting on the supreme value of observing the patients and the accumulation of experience by the physician to make a correct diagnosis of diseases. Obtaining clinical information and its interpretation are two moments of the process of medical care, which are closely related. From them, some components are derived, such as the doctor-patient relationship, anamnesis, physical examination and medical history. Together with this, there is a technological modernism in medical sciences, which is inevitable given its progress; but it should not involve an abandonment of the clinical method, because it would violate the ethical and medical principles that have been in place since the time of Hippocrates. Some thoughts on the components of the clinical method, the technological presence in modern cardiology and the relationship between them are expressed, based on the unquestionable validity and importance of this method and the duty of health professionals to put it into practice.