Scientific and humanistic aspects are integral to medicine and they must be bounded and integrated, not to suggest that one is more important than the other, or that they operate separately.In fact, the symbol of the physician, 'Caduceus' properly represents the bonding and intertwining between two forces of knowledge and wisdom or science and humanities, and as seen in the Hippocratic Oath, the humanities and the humanistic aspect of medical profession were important parts of practice thousands of years before medicine learned to use science as a new approach to acquire knowledge. However, the advances in science and technology in the early twenty century have fostered an emphasis on knowledge and technical skills in medical education with a neglect of the traditional humane and interpersonal aspects of the practice of medicine. Due to these concerns, for the last some 30years, there have been many attempts to improve general professional education and promote humanities curricula in medical education such as atruistic attitudes and professional behaviors that those pursuing careers in medicine should possess. This paper briefly reviews current status of teaching medical humanities and social sciences in Korean medical schools, and discusses tasks to be coped with to further improve the medical humanities curriculum in Korea including development of effective teaching and evaluation methods. This paper also emphasizes the importance of the role of the medical education systems such as National Licensing Medical Examination and the Medical School Accreditation System in improving the teaching of medical humanities and social sciences in Korean medical schools.
Accreditation ; Curriculum ; Education, Medical ; Education, Professional ; Hippocratic Oath ; Humanities* ; Humans* ; Korea ; Licensure ; Schools, Medical* ; Social Sciences

In Classical Greece, works defining the nature of art appeared in the various disciplines like medicine, rhetoric, dietetics, architecture and painting. Hippocratic authors tried to show that an art of medicine existed indeed. They contrasted the concept of art with that of chance, not experience that Plato and Aristotle distinguished from art. In fact there are similarities and discrepancies between Hippocratic epistemology and Platoic epistemology. Hippocratic authors maintained that the products of chance were not captured by art. They distinguished the domain of art charactered by explanatory knowledge and prediction from the domain of chance ruled by the unexplained and the unforeseeable. They minimized the role of luck and believed the role of art. Hippocratic authors thought that professional ability contained both knowledge and experience. In Hippocratic corpus, experience is a synonym of competence and usually has a positive meaning. But Plato gave empirical knowledge the disdainful sense and decided a ranking between two types of knowledge. Both Hippocratic authors and Plato held that a genuine art had connection with explanatory knowledge of the nature of its subject matter. A common theme that goes through arguments about art-chance and art-chance is the connection between art and nature. Hippocratic authors and Plato regarded art as a highly systematic process. Art provides us with general and explanatory knowledge of human nature. Art and nature is a mutual relationship. The systematic understanding of nature helps us gain the exactness of art and an exact art helps us understand nature well.
*Art/history ; Greece ; Hippocratic Oath ; History, Ancient ; Humans ; Philosophy, Medical/*history

Medical ethics, autonomy, and self-regulation form the core of medical professionalism. Therefore, codes and guidelines regarding ethics are key documents that demonstrate the identity of physicians as a professional group in a society. In Korea, foreign declarations such as the Hippocratic Oath and the Geneva Declaration have been translated and introduced, while medical ethics guidelines have been introduced from developed countries. In 1961, 1965, and 1979, the Code of Medical Ethics was created and revised, but only in 1997 did Korean doctors develop their own ethics guidelines and codes reflecting their identity in Korean society. In order for these guidelines and codes to be effective living documents, they should be regularly modified to reflect changes in the medical environment and the field of medicine. In response to the urgent need to establish strict norms of medical professionalism in the 21st century due to internal and external problems in Korean society, the Korean Medical Association worked to revise the Ethics Code and Guidelines in 2016. This article reviews the history of how the Korean Code of Ethics and Guidelines has changed and examines the contents of the Code of Ethics and Guidelines as amended in 2016.
Codes of Ethics ; Developed Countries ; Ethics ; Ethics, Medical* ; Hippocratic Oath ; Korea* ; Professionalism ; Self-Control