From empirical medicine – to analytical medicine

The article examines the crisis in medical science and practice caused by the contradiction between the volume of accumulated knowledge and the methodology for its development, and proposes a methodological approach to the further development of the general theory of medicine. The concepts of the object, subject and method of medicine are clarified, a definition of health is given as the body’s ability to function indefinitely. Two forms of ill health are identified – disease and functional failure, while the term «disease» is interpreted as a set of processes leading to a loss of balance in the body and disruption of its recovery. Along with this, an analytical method for diagnosing a disease is described, a classification of diseases from the standpoint of analytical medicine is proposed, and urgent tasks of medical semiotics are outlined.