History of Medicine - Christopher Sprague

Neolithic

4000 BCE

~ Illness and diseases were caused by evil spirits or as a punishment from the gods.
~ Tribal "physicians" treated illness with ceremonies.
~ Herbs and plants used as medicine.
~ Trepanation (surgical removal of a portion of the skull).
~ Average lifespan 20 years (average lifespan is brought down by high infant mortality, people lived longer than 20 all the time).

Ancient Egyptians

3000 BCE

~ Physicians were priests
~ Started recording health records
~ Bloodletting/leches used as treatment
~ Average lifespan (20-30)

Ancient Chinese

1700 BCE

~ Believed in treating the whole body
~ Recorded a pharmacopoeia of medications, mainly based on herbs
~ Used therapies such as acupuncture
~ Began to search for medical reasons for illness
~ Average lifespan was 20-30 years

Ancient Greeks

1200 BCE

~ Hippocrates (father of medicine) & other physicians
~ First to observe the human body and effects of disease
~ Believed illness to be a result of natural causes
~ Used therapies such as massage, art therapy, & herbal treatment
~ Stressed diet, hygiene, & exercise as a way to prevent disease
~ Average lifespan 25-35 years

Ancient Romans

753 BCE

~ First to organize medical care
~ Later hospitals were also religious institutions in monasteries & convents (after the empire converted to Christianity, before that they were temples to specific healing gods)
~ First public health and sanitation systems
~ Galen established belief of four humors
~ Average lifespan was 25-35 years

Dark Ages

400

~ After the fall of Rome lots of knowledge was lost
~ Emphasis on saving the soul
~ Study of medicine was prohibited
~ Prayer & divine intervention were used to treat illness
~ Monks & priests provided care for the sick
~ Medications were herbal mixtures
~ Average lifespan 20-30 years
~Diseases blamed on circumstance

Medieval Age

800

~ Renewed interest in practices of Greeks & Romans
~ 1100: Arabs require physicians to pass exams
~ 1220-1255: Medical universities established
~ 1346-1353: Bubonic Plague killed 75% of the Population of Europe & Asia
~ Major diseases included: smallpox, diphtheria, tuberculosis, typhoid, the plague, and malaria
~ Lifespan 20-35

Renaissance

1350

~ Rebirth of science & medicine
~ Body dissections increased understanding of anatomy & physiology
~ 1440: Invention of printing press allowed medical knowledge to be shared
~ 1543: First anatomy book was published by Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564)
~ Average lifespan was 30-40
~ Disease cause still a mystery

16th & 17th Centuries

1601

~ Knowledge of the human body greatly increased
~ 1500's: Ambroise Pare a French surgeon established use of ligatures to stop bleeding
~ 1600's: Apothecaries (early pharmacists) made, prescribed, and sold medications
~ 1670: Invention of the microscope
~ Allowed physicians to see disease causing organisms
~ Average lifespan 35-45 years
~ Cause of disease still not known

18th Century

1701

~ 1724: Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686-1736) created the first mercury thermometer
~ 1760: Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals
~ 1778: John Hunter established surgical procedures and introduced tube feeding
~ 1798: Smallpox vaccine discovered
~ Average lifespan 40-50 years

19th Century

1801

~ 1816: Invention of stethoscope
~ 1846: First use of anesthesia by Boston dentist
~ 1860: Formal training for nurses began
~ 1861: Germ Theory proposed by Louis Pasteur
~ 1865: Joseph Lister implements antiseptics in surgery to prevent infection
~ 1893: First open heart surgery
~ 1895: First X-Ray machine developed
~ Average lifespan 40-60 years

20th Century

1901

~ Rapid development in healthcare
~ 1901: ABO blood groups discovered
~ 1910: Laparoscopic Surgery
~ 1922: Insulin discovered
~ 1928: Penicillin discovered
~ 1943: Kidney dialysis machine
~ 1953: Heart-Lung machine
~ 1953: Structure of DNA discovered
~ 1956: First bone marrow transplant
~ 1960: Kidney transplants
~ 1963: Liver transplants
~ 1967: Heart transplants
~ 1978: Test tube babies
~ 1982: Artificial heart
~ 1990: Smoke free laws
~ 1996: Advances in HIV meds
~ 1999: Advances in STEM Cells

Vaccines of the 20th Century

1950

~ 1921: Diptheria
~ 1925: Tuberculosis
~ 1927: Pertussis
~ 1937: Typhus
~ 1945: Influenza
~ 1962: Oral Polio
~ 1963: Measles
~ 1967: Mumps
~ 1970: Rubella
~ 1974: Chicken Pox
~ 1977: Streptococcus Pneumonia
~ 1978: Meningitis
~ 1981: Hepatitis B
~ 1992: Hepatitis A
~ 1998: Lyme Disease
~ 1998: Rotavirus

21st Century

2001

~ 2001: First totally implantable artificial heart
~ 2003: Human Genome Project completed
~ 2005: Face transplants
~ Electronic Health Records
~ Vaccines
~ 2006: HPV
~ 2015: Malaria
~ 2015: Ebola