History of Healthcare Timeline

Primitive Times

4000 BCE

4000 bc - 3000 bc
People believed that supernatural spirits and demons caused illness and disease. Tribal doctors treated illness with ceremonies to drive out evil spirits. Herbs and plants were used as medicines. Trepanation was one of the first surgeries. It was where they would make a hole in someone's head.

Ancient Egyptians

3000 BCE

3000 bc - 300 bc
Earliest people known to keep health records. Called on gods to heal them when disease occurred. Physicians were priests who studied medicine and surgery in temple medical schools. Believed that bodies were a system of channels for air, tears, blood, urine, sperm, and feces. If it was to be "clogged" they would leech or bloodlet you. They used medical plants and magic.

Ancient Chinese

1700 BCE

1700 bc - 220 ad
Religious prohibitions against dissection resulted in inadequate knowledge of body structure. Carefully monitor the pulse to determine the condition of the body. Believed in the need to treat the whole body by curing the spirit and nourishing the body. Used acupuncture, or puncturing the skin with needles, to relieve pain and congestion. Used lots of herbs and made medications based on them.

Ancient Greeks

1200 BCE

1200 bc - 200 ad
Began Modern medical science by observing the human body and the effects of disease. The "Father of Medicine" Hippocrates lived in this era. He developed an organized method to observe the human body, recorded signs and symptoms of many diseases, and created high standards of ethics, the Oath of Hippocrates. With stressed diet and cleanliness as ways to prevent disease, Aristotle dissected animals and is called the founder of comparative anatomy.

Ancient Romans

753 BCE

753 bc - 410 ad
First to organize medical care by providing care for injured soldiers. Early hospitals developed when physicans cared for ill people in rooms. Began public health and sanatiation systems. Diets, exercise, and medications were used to create disease. Claudius Galen a physician, established many medical beliefs.

Dark ages

400

400 ad - 800 ad
Emphasis was placed on saving the soul, and study of medicine was prohibited. Prayer and divine intervention were used to treat illness and disease. Medications were mainly herbal mixtures

Middle ages

800

800 ad - 1400 ad
Renewed interest in the medical practice of Greeks and Romans. Physicians began to obtain knowledge of medical universities in the 9th century. The Black Death went around Europe and killed 2/3 of the population. Arab physicians used their knowledge of chemistry to advance pharmacology

Renaissance

1350

1350 ad - 1650 ad
Rebirth of science medicine. Dissection of the body began to allow a better understanding of anatomy and physiology. The first chairs of medicine were created at Oxford and Cambridge University in England in 1440. The first anatomy book was published by Andreas Vesalius.

16th and 17th Centuries

1501

1501 - 1700
The causes of disease were still not known, and many people still died from infectious and puerperal fever. William Harvey described the circulation of blood to and from the heart in 1628. The first successful blood transaction was performed on animals in England in 1667. Lots of body parts were identified.

18th Century

1701

1701 - 1800
Established scientific surgical producers. Introduced tube feeding in 1778. James Lind prescribed lime juice containing vitamin C to prevent scurvy in 1795.

19th Century

1801

1801 - 1900
Royal College of Surgeons in London (1800) In 1818 James Blundell performed the first successful blood transfusion. Dr. James Simpson began using chloroform as an anesthetic. The International Red Cross was formed. Bacteria causing Gonorrhea and leprosy were discovered and identified. Many people started finding new things out.

20th Century

1901

1901 - 2001
Joseph Murray performed the first successful kidney transplant in humans. Birth control pills were approved by the U.S. FDA. Multiple vaccines were made. While technology started to advance, medical technology also did. People started creating more organizations and healthcare jobs. New diseases were found and old ones were treated.

21st Century

2001

2001 - current
Adult stem cells were used in the treatment of disease early in the 2000s. The FDA approved the first robotic surgical system. Advanced cell tech cloned a human but it did not survive. The Human Genome Project to identify all of the approximately 20,000 to 25,000 genes in human DNA was complete. Multiple new medicines were made. Recently a Cancer cure that's been tested on has worked for many cancers but has not yet been tested on humans yet and will start to.