Template-type: ReDif-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Backhaus Jürgen G.
Author-workplace-name: METEOR
Title: Paracelsus (1493-1541) : his relevance for modern health related policy
Abstract: Half a millenium ago, Theophrast Bombast von Hohenheim who called himself Paracelsus (1493-1541) entered this world in order to revolutionize thought on health care related issues in ways that seem strikingly modern today. Although to a large extent Paracelsus was still a man of the middle ages, he was pushing for approaches not only to reform medical practice itself but also the entire system of health care delivery. His approach emphasized the social conditions surrounding illness, healing and health. In this vein, he was for instance the founder of the subdiscipline of the study of occupational diseases, but he is also generally considered as being the one wandering scholar who laid the foundation on which modern pharmaceutical methods rest. This essay first gives a short sketch of Paracelsus'' life, then offers a few samples of his insights taken from his arcane original German, and proceeds by offering an overview over the remainder of this volume of the International Review of Comparative Public Policy, which contains eleven articles on unorthodox aspects of health related issues in an international comparative public policy perspective. 
Keywords: public economics ; 
Series: Research Memoranda
Creation-Date: 1995
Number: 026
File-URL: http://digitalarchive.maastrichtuniversity.nl/fedora/objects/guid:eee143e3-4054-48ce-be40-abff12038597/datastreams/ASSET1/content
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 76572
Handle: RePEc:unm:umamet:1995026