Medical literature

Medical literature is the scientific literature of medicine: articles in journals and texts in books devoted to the field of medicine. Many references to the medical literature include the health care literature generally, including that of dentistry, veterinary medicine, pharmacy, nursing, and the allied health professions. Contemporary and historic views regarding diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of medical conditions have been documented for thousands of years. The Edwin Smith papyrus is the first known medical treatise. Ancient medical literature often described inflictions related to warfare. History of medicine Throughout history, people have written about diseases, how human beings might contract them and what could be done to remedy it. Medicine ranged from folklore and witchcraft to modern evidence-based medicine. Among the most notable early medical descriptions are found in texts from Egypt (Edwin Smith Papyrus, Ebers Papyrus, Kahun Gynecological Papyrus), Mesopotamia (Diagnostic Handbook), India (Sushruta Samhita, Charaka Samhita), China (Huangdi Neijing), Rome (De Medicina), and Greece (De Materia Medica). Important medical works in the medieval Islamic era include texts from Persia (The Canon of Medicine of Ibn Sina), Spain (Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi's Kitab al-Tasrif), Iraq (De Gradibus), and Syria (Ibn al-Nafis' Comprehensive Book on Medicine), while important medical texts from early medieval Europe include those from England (Compendium Medicinæ) and Byzantine Greece (Medical Compendium in Seven Books). Following Vesalius, William Harvey, Ignaz Semmelweis, Louis Pasteur, and others, the medical community have changed the way it conducts research. After incorporating the scientific method, medical literature has introduced peer review, and is currently divided into journals and textbooks. Public health journal and Nursing journals These are publications in which the medical community shares information. The common articles are original articles, reviews and case reports.