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The necessity of fusing the art and humanity of medicine, leavened with its science, has been seriously diminished in medical education and practice during recent decades.
The John P. McGovern Lectureship reaffirms the validity of the oldest description of the practice of medicine, "the healing art," and stresses the importance of the intrinsic healing attributes of those who practice the art.
The McGovern Lectureship shows by precept and example that the goal of good patient care is the practice of the science of the art of medicine, where there is a blending of the highest scientific skills with the use of the physician himself/herself as an instrument of therapy. Without the fusion of the healer and the scientist, there can be no complete physician, for only the complete physician can be a person of science when facing the disease and a person of faith when facing the patient.
As Sir William Osler so ably expressed: "To prevent disease, to relieve suffering, and to heal the sick - this is our work," and elsewhere, however, wisely added that "science and the humanities are twin berries on the same branch," that we function best as scientifically knowledgeable, humane and caring physicians. With the renewed emphasis on family practice and primary care, medicine can be helped to recapture its soul and become again primarily the keeper of patients and only secondarily the keeper of machines and technology. The John P. McGovern Award Annual Lectureship is dedicated to helping us hear and heed Osler's description of our work in the healing art where we function as humanistic and caring physicians, thoroughly grounded in our science and technology.
