History of Medical Academy at Cos

In 400 BC, when Hippocrates led the medical academy at Cos, documenting his patient encounters, teaching his students the Art of medicine, and writing what would become known as the Hippocratic Corpus, he was unaware that he was establishing Western medical theory for the next two plus millennia.

The origin of the academy at Cos probably dates from sixth century BC. It was centered on the island of Cos, one of the most eastern of the Greek islands; it lies close to the coast of what is now Turkey, midway between Samos and Rhodes.

Hippocrates

A collection of 70 scientific treaties produced at the medical academy of Cos were ascribed to Hippocrates. One of the books is On the Sacred Disease written in the fifth and fourth centuries BC.

The medical academy at Cos aimed at prognosis by a general study of the symptoms and signs of known diseases. It centered its attention on the patient and his individual reaction to the disease, seeing the clinical manifestations as the product of the interaction between the morbid process itself and the healing or naturally restorative powers of the body.

The academy of Cos, the so called Coan School, had a rival, situated on the opposite peninsula at Cnidus. The Cnidian focus was in the disease, while that of Hippocrates was on patient. Scholars also believed that Medical Academy at Cos had innovated in the field of dietetics.
History of Medical Academy at Cos