By:  Brigitte T

A few months ago I took on a job that pushed and challenged me. I learned a lot during a short time. But what if we never sought ways to challenge ourselves?

If we stopped challenging ourselves, striving to be more, the world would not be where it is today.  Medicine definitely wouldn’t be where it is today... 

While I was doing research for the blog I came across Hippocrates of Kos (c.460-c.370 BCE), who is considered the “father of modern Medicine”. Let me tell you a little bit about him and what his story teaches us...

Hippocrates and his students systemized the thinking that illnesses can be explained by an imbalance of blood, black bile and yellow bile.  That was very different than many prevailing thoughts at the time.

Now what if Hippocrates would have stopped at that point? What if he didn’t keep pursuing medical knowledge and pushing both himself and his students? Do you think Medicine would be where it is today if everyone relied on some one else to discover a cure or make a prognosis?

Hippocrates did not just stop there…he went on to categorize illnesses as acute, chronic, endemic, and epidemic. These are just a few things that Hippocrates did for medicine.

Just wow…I find it to be astounding how Hippocrates didn’t back down when faced with prevailing thoughts or unknown, undiscovered medicine. This proves to me that none of us should ever give up.

Have you ever received an ABSITE raw score or percentile score that was MUCH lower than you expected?  Or lower than you wanted?  How did you respond?

Do you think Hippocrates had it easy? Did he have many tools like the Internet, books, or lectures to help guide him to his findings?

No, I don’t think he had many luxuries at his beck and call. We have access right at our fingertips to help continue our ability to learn new information, and maybe even discover new methods to treat patients. Someone has to come up with the next method--the next cure…

Remember you have to keep going and pushing forward.  So let us help you prep for the ABSITE during your residency.  ABSITE Smackdown! has a lecture video course that you get included with purchase of a great ABSITE review book!  In fact, ABSITE Smackdown! is the only review book with video lectures included. You can review for the ABSITE from anyplace and anytime...if only Hippocrates had tools like that!