Healing the Person vs. Killing the Disease

At no other point in history has medical science included the tools, technology and pharmaceutical medicines that today not only prolong our lives but allow us to survive in the face of life-threatening disease.  Our doctors and nurse study long and hard to master the tools of modern medical science so that they can directo our medical treatments with the deeply valuable goal of preserving our lives.  Such mastery often requires deep specialization, making Western medical specialists leading experts in their fields of specialization, but what have we given up in this quest for specialization?  As a society and as a hemisphere, it seems we are gradually coming full circle in realization of what we have given up in our quest for more medical technologies and specialization.  While grateful for what Western medical science does for us, we are less and less satisfied with a medical paradigm that too often focuses on the disease and ignores the emotional being who is carrying the disease.