ABSTRACT
The healthcare industry is a rather recent development in the industrial world. However, elements of research and development (R&D) in that area used for the treatment of diseases have been flourishing since almost the dawn of ages. The shaman and the medicine man or woman of yesteryear used the strategies of observation and trial and error in their practice of the art of healing with variable results. Folk medicine, which was the result of R&D at its most primitive level, seems, paradoxically in the 1990s, to be exhibiting a resurgence under the name of alternative medicine. In a time when gene and cell therapies appear to be the next frontier, a return to the roots-no pun intended-is a reflection on human nature. Outcomes of therapies are now a part of the picture of healthcare under the guise of pharmacoeconomics; however, in time past, the outcome of therapy, especially when applied to the power structure of the era-ranging from head cave person to kings or queens-was crucial to the medicine person. Often, if the therapy was not successful, the outcome for the healer was death. This motivated the healer to try remedies on the less fortunate, which, as the legend would state, was the beginning of R&D. In the present, malpractice insurance has taken a more genteel, if not more expensive, approach to unexpected outcomes.
