Introduction:

The questioning the scientific character of clinical medicine is included among the epistemological problems of science.

Objective:

To review the contribution of clinical medicine as an applied science, with emphasis on the method that distinguishes it: the clinical method.

Methods:

The specialized bibliography was reviewed, complemented with the use of qualitative research procedures that included interviews with professionals with proven experience, working with focus groups and in-depth sessions.

Findings:

The historical development of scientific thought had an impact on clinical medicine, the scientificity of the clinical method explained from different approaches, the response to the criticisms of positivism and the way in which clinical medicine meets the requirements for its acceptance as applied science.

Conclusions:

The scientificity of clinical medicine was founded from a dialectical approach distinguished by its interdisciplinary nature, its condition of applied science and by a scientific method that enables the professional performance of the physician with the patient, the individual at risk of becoming ill and apparently healthy man: the clinical method.

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