Welcome to an intriguing journey of humanity's voyage from the primeval forest groves to the cutting-edge laboratories of the present day in wrestling with the primordial problem: combating disease and prolonging healthful, productive existence. Our exploration is none other than the tale of medicine – an ever-evolving set of techniques, insights, and understandings regarding the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease.

Medicine, in its most basic sense, is anything intended to combat disease and promote health. How we classify medicine has naturally varied with our understanding of disease. With the mysteries of the human body and the complexities of countless pathologies, the task of classifying medicine has always been an ambitious undertaking. It ranges from the macroscopic understanding, diagnosis, and treatment, as seen in diverse branches such as cardiology, neurology, orthopedics, to a more microscopic understanding like immunology, genomics, and even nanomedicine in the pursuit of health.

The importance of medicine is just as complex and multifaceted as its definition and classification. At its core, medicine represents a fundamental human desire for longevity, vitality, and relief from suffering. On a broader societal scale, it signifies our collective commitment to care for one another, to alleviate pain, and ensure the highest attainable standard of health as a basic human right.

The accomplishment of humanity in this realm is awe-inspiring. This journey of medical advances that we are about to embark on unfurls the story of our transition from archaic herbal remedies to the revolutionary domain of gene editing. It is a testament to the brilliance of the human mind, its boundless curiosity, and the incredible determination to understand the workings of the body and harness that knowledge to combat disease.

Our voyage commences with our first endeavors in understanding diseases by harnessing the uses of the world around us, encapsulating the time-honored practices of herbal remedies in many ancient civilizations. A leap would then emerge with the rise of rational medicine in ancient Greece, seeing a shift in medicine from the realm of the supernatural to the sphere of the natural world.

This uniquely human journey will then lead us into era-defining milestones from the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, onto the revolutionary medical discoveries of modern medicine and beyond to the current advancements and prospects of nanomedicine, gene editing, and artificial intelligence.

So, let us venture together on this fascinating expedition, exploring, appreciating, and understanding how from the simplest herbs sprouted the complex matrix of modern medicine. From an era of humble beginnings, behold how shared knowledge, wisdom, and an insatiable desire to better the human condition gives life to the art and science that is medicine, pushing the boundaries of what it means to heal, to cure and to thrive.