Just about heading off to bed and was reminded of a challenge I recently joined - the 21 Day Meditation Challenge hosted by the Chopra Center. I just started yesterday, though I signed up for it weeks ago at the suggestion of a fellow classmate.
Interestingly, the blurb for the first day's worth of meditation, entitled, "The Mind-Body Connection," addressed medical education:

Only a few decades ago, medical students were taught to view the body as a machine whose parts would inevitably break down until it could no longer be repaired. Today science is arriving at a radically different understanding: While the body appears to be material, it is really a field of energy and intelligence that is inextricably connected to the mind.

I agree that conceptually, we, as a profession have moved away from the model of the patient as a collection of parts, but practically, we are still beholden to the idea of doctor as a mechanic for humans. This is very much exemplified by the growing list of specialties and sub-specialisties, and interests within subspecialities. I credit this to the vast amount of new information we garner on literally a weekly, if not daily basis, of how individual parts of the body works. I do not fault this mode of thinking either, given the pace of new discoveries of how best to take care of various body systems. However, I believe that many a patient and his cast of physicians will admit that I times, we sometimes miss the forest for the trees (I believe that is the expression). Meaning that, in our quest to address individual systems and subsystems, we can forget the interconnectedness of such parts and how best to address the whole individual.

I do believe we are doing a better job at addressing the importance of the mind, both from an education, clinical practice, and research standpoint. The description of a human body as a "field of energy and intelligence" may be a bit too decorative for my liking, I am undoubtedly convinced about the prominence of the mind and its influence on clinical outcomes in some** cases.

**Oh yeah, I am so hedging my bets on that one.