At least until the period immediately following Galen (129-217 AD) Ancient Greek Medicine did not have a generally accepted theory. Three great schools of medical thought (Hippocratists or Dogmatics, Empiricists and Methodics), as well as some minor ones (Pneumatics and Eclectics) were contradicting on major issues on the philosophy of medicine. The standardization of the medical tradition after the 4th c. AD created a robust healing system that dominated until the rise of modern chemical medicine in the 19th c. Due to the Arabs the Ancient Greek Medicine spread to a large part of the known world. Traces of the Greek tradition can be found in isolated Ethiopia, in India (Unani Tibbia, or literary Greek Medicine), Tibet or even in China.
During the effort to understand and implement the ancient Greek medical tradition in the practice of holistic treatment, it is necessary to study thoroughly the evolution of its theory (the four elements and humours etc.), diagnosis and prognosis (pulse diagnosis, uroscopy), as well as treatment (diet,
pharmacology, surgery). Especially for the development of a modern training system on Ancient Greek Medicine it is crucial to study and understand the teaching method of the Alexandrian masters of 6th-7th c. AD (Gesius, Palladius Iatrosophista, Theophilus Protospatharius, Stephanus the Athenian etc.).