The Art and Science of Radiology: Published By The Radiology Society of North America.
By Thomas Allen Groover
June, 1931
The statement is often made that the practice of medicine is both an art and a science. This statement is true in varying degrees in the fields both of diagnosis and treatment. In the field of diagnosis the art of medicine is concerned with the collection of data; the science of medicine with the systematic arrangement, correlation, and evaluation of such data. In the field of therapy the art of medicine covers all those technical procedures, now almost innumerable, in the treatment of disease; but there is also a science of therapy based upon the facts gained by experimentation and experience. It is the science of medicine that renders treatment reasonable and rational and without which the art of medicine may be a most wasteful and even dangerous empiricism.
It is thirty-five years since the discovery of Xrays and during all of that time there has been a steady development of the art of radiology. The invention of more powerful, more dependable, and more accurate apparatus has necessitated constant change in technic, until the methods in use to-day bear little resemblance to those of twenty-five or even fifteen years ago. It has been comparatively lately that the science of radiology has made equal strides, but we have now at hand such a tremendous accumulation of data in the diagnostic field, and so much knowledge based on both experimentation and clinical experience in the field of therapy, that we may now expect steady and more nearly equal progress both as an art and a science.
The radiologist is really a specialist, therefore, only in the same way that the general surgeon is one, that is, in the technical aspects of his calling.
The only preparation possible in the undergraduate course is such as will indicate the fields in which radiology is useful, that is, information may be gained which will indicate the possibilities and the limitations of the X-ray in diagnosis and the X-ray and radium in treatment. After graduation the prospective radiologist secures appointment as interne in a good general hospital and serves for one year, rotating in the regular way on the various services. The second year he secures a residency in the same or another hospital and spends his time in more intensive study of a limited number of cases, with special attention to autopsies and gross pathology.
It cannot be too greatly emphasized that a thorough training in pathology is the essential foundation for the study of radiology, just as it is for internal medicine.
When this two years' preparatory work is finished he then enters upon a fellowship in radiology in a large radiological department.
At the end of this two years' fellowship he is now ready to become an assistant in radiology either in a hospital or in private practice and to really begin his training as a practical radiologist.
It cannot be too strongly emphasized that the future of radiology depends upon the recognition of the radiologist as a consultant in medicine and surgery, and the radiologist owes it to himself to qualify for that position and to accept nothing less.
There are ahead great possibilities for growth and expansion, and there is no doubt but that the field is large enough to engage all the powers of even the most brilliant students. Radiology has one advantage over most other medical specialties in that its scope is the whole field of medicine and surgery. The radiologist is not called upon to combat the narrowing influence which constantly menaces the specialist.
Radiology has now reached a point in its development where it is on a sound foundation both as an art and a science. As an art, it has reached a degree of accuracy in technical procedure hardly equalled in other fields of medical practice; as a science, it reaches out into every field of medical knowledge.