Curated playlist
Medical specialties
- PediatricsPediatrics takes its name from two ancient Greek words: pais, meaning child, and iatros, meaning healer. The word is a statement of purpose. A doctor whose entire practice is devoted to healing children occupies one of medicine's oldest…
- CardiologyCardiology sits at the center of medicine's most urgent business: keeping the heart beating. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, and in 2008 it accounted for nearly 25% of all deaths in the country.…
- NeurologyNeurology takes its name from the ancient Greek word neûron, meaning string or nerve, paired with the suffix logia, meaning the study of. Today it encompasses diagnosis and treatment of every category of condition involving the nervous…
- DermatologyDermatology is the branch of medicine devoted entirely to the skin, and it sits at an unusual crossroads: part physician's practice, part surgical suite. The skin is the body's largest organ, and the conditions it develops range from…
- GastroenterologyGastroenterology takes its name from three Greek roots: gastḗr for belly, énteron for intestine, and logía for the study of something. The word describes the branch of medicine devoted to the digestive system and its disorders. The doctors…
- ImmunologyImmunology began with thorns pushed into starfish larvae. The Russian biologist Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov pressed small thorns into the larvae and watched unusual cells gather around the wound. He was seeing the body trying to keep itself…
- OncologyOncology begins with a papyrus. Around 3000 BCE, Egyptian physicians encountered something they could not ignore: a bulging tumor of the breast. They wrote it down in what we now call the Edwin Smith papyrus, making that clinical note one…
- HematologyHematology is the branch of medicine built entirely around blood, a substance so central to life that its disorders can touch nearly every organ in the body. A diagnosis of leukemia, multiple myeloma, or lymphoma lands in the…
- PsychiatryPsychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to diagnosing, treating, and preventing mental disorders, the conditions that touch cognition, perception, mood, emotion, and behavior. Its name was coined by the German physician Johann…
- RadiologyRadiology is the medical specialty that uses imaging to see inside the bodies of humans and other animals, then uses those pictures to diagnose disease and guide treatment. Its name carries a clue to its origins. The root points to…
- UrologyUrology takes its name from the ancient Greek word for urine, ouron, yet the specialty reaches far beyond that single bodily function. It governs the kidneys, adrenal glands, ureters, bladder, and urethra, and in men it also oversees the…
- DentistryDentistry is older than the written history of humanity. The earliest evidence stretches back tens of thousands of years, with rich traces appearing from 7000 BC onward. One tooth from Italy, partially cleaned with flint tools, dates…
- SurgerySurgery is a medical specialty that cuts into the body to fix what is wrong inside it. As a general rule, a procedure counts as surgical when it involves cutting a person's tissues to treat a disease or injury. The oldest evidence of it is…