Modern medicine, or allopathy, is characterized by the heavy use of drugs, radiation, lengthy hospital stays and invasive surgery.
With the exception of syphilis and other acute diseases, I know not how this school of medicine has improved quality of patient's lives. There hasn't been a blockbuster drug like penicillin for many years.
In fact, patients with chronic illnesses often suffer more under modern medicine -- think chemotherapy, statins, etc.
It's always about treatment and not the cure. No pharmaceutical drug is 100% specific and when the molecule is isolated from its manifest form in nature, it becomes poison.
Bottom line: Preventative medicine is the best. Let food be thy medicine.
A few quotes from wise men:
"Doctor, no physicking. We are, as I already told you , a machine made to live. We are organised for that purpose, and such is our nature. Do not counteract the living principle. Let it alone; leave it the liberty of defending itself, — it will do better than your drugs."
"Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing."
"The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease."