I realize this might be hard to answer. I was wondering if there were a couple of events (like new methods or treatments or dogmas) , that could be described as the start of modern medicine. I was watching a historical medical drama and asked myself from which point on it would have been more sensible to go to a doctor instead of just toughing it out (I guess this would also depend on the place and not just the time) Thanks in advance for any answers.
John Barry's The Great Influenza talks a lot about the transition from heroic medicine to more modern lab-based treatments and epidemiology. The response to the outbreak of this disease seems a reasonable place to mark the shift. I'd recommend the book as it actually reads a bit like Contagion, the movie from Steven Soderberg who also developed The Knick which I'm assuming is the show you're currently watching.
In Bad Medicine: Doctors Doing Harm Since Hippocrates, Wootton argues that, for all intents and purposes, modern medicine began with the practical application and use of the germ theory of disease by Snow (influenza, 1850s) and Lister (sterilization techniques, 1870s).
hi! this question may be worth x-posting to /r/AskScience to catch the eye of more medical specialists