From the anatomoclinical school to the physiopathological one at the medical faculty, university of antioquia, in medellin, colombia

Abstract

This paper attempts to present the "school concept" from its etymological origin and to link it to the dynamics of history as an ever changing concept; also, to relate it to the history of knowledge, with its characteristic changes and ruptures.

The "school concept" advances from the mechanistic space to Newton´s formulations, whose model of the universe dominated scientific thought between the middle of the XVII century and the end of the XIX century; then with Einstein´s modern physics and the relativity and quantic theories.

Einstein broke up with the mechanistic Newtonian vision of the XIX century physics, but biomedical science, through education, remains anchored to the fragmentary vision of reality offered by symptoms and organs.

The change from the anatomoclinical school to the physiopathological one at the Medical Faculty, University of Antioquia, is described. This Faculty dates back to 1871 and started under the influence of the anatomoclinical French model. It did not change until 1940; then there was a significant change to scientific medicine with the pathology laboratory (1943) and the clinicopathological conference (1944), both founded by doctor Alfredo Correa Henao. Also, with the development of modern physiology with doctor Alberto Saldarriaga, a surgeon from the school of Bernard and Leriche, and doctor Antonio Ramírez González, a physiologist from Louisville University (USA) and a chest surgeon from the United Kingdom.

Some work carried out at the physiology and experimental surgery laboratories are described, in which both German and American methodologies were employed.