Kettunen History of Healthcare Timeline

  • Period: 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE

    Early beginnings

  • 3900 BCE

    Disease Caused By?

    Thought to have come from evil spirits
  • 3600 BCE

    Treatments for the sick

    Plants were originally used to help cure the sick
  • 3100 BCE

    Medicines used today

    Digitalis:
    They come from the fox glove plant. The leaves were chewed to strengthen and slow the heartbeat. Now they are taken in pill form or by injection to treat heart conditions.
  • 3100 BCE

    Medicines used today

    Quinine:
    It comes from the bark of the cinchona tree. It helps to control fevers, relieves muscle spasms, and helps to prevent malaria.
  • 3100 BCE

    Medicines used today

    Belladonna and atropine:
    They are made from the poisonous nightshade plant and they are used to relieve muscle spasms, especially in gastrointestinal pain. (GI)
  • 3100 BCE

    Medicines used today

    Morphine:
    Made from the opium poppy, it is an effective medication for treating severe pain. It is very addictive so only use it when nothing else will help with the pain.
  • Period: 2999 BCE to 399

    Ancient Times

  • 2900 BCE

    Ancient Egyptians

    Health records:
    Egyptians were the earliest people to keep accurate health records, they were superstitious and called upon the gods to heal them
    Who are the physicians:
    Priests acted as physicians
    How did they heal:
    They learned to splint fractures and treat disorders by bloodletting using leeches. They were used to drain the blood since blood pooled around a wound can threaten the healing of the tissue. Today leeches are still used to help heal skin graphs and restore circulation.
  • 1900 BCE

    Ancient Chinese

    Development of acupuncture:
    They were the first to use acupuncture therapies, they were used to treat varieties of illnesses and diseases with stone needle like tools. It is still commonly used today.
  • 900 BCE

    Ancient Greeks

    Illness cause nature vs. spiritual:
    Illnesses were thought to have natural causes versus spiritual causes
    Dissection:
    During ancient times Religious customs did not allow bodies to be dissected.
    Hippocrates:
    He is named the father of medicine and he based his knowledge on anatomy and physiology by observing the external body. He made notes of notes of the signs and symptoms of many diseases.
  • 100 BCE

    Ancient Roman’s

    Sanitation Systems:
    They found that some diseases was caused by lack of sanitation. They developed a sanitation system by bringing clean water into the city by aqueducts and made public baths with filtered water.
    Organize medical care:
    They were the first to make organized care, they sent medical equipment and physicians with there armies to care for wounded soldiers.
    Hospital development:
    Roman physicians kept a room in their houses for the ill before hospitals and they were paid to do so.
  • Period: 400 to 800

    Dark Age

  • 500

    Why did they stop the study of medicine

    They stopped the study of medicine because the church believed that life and death were in gods hands and the priests and monks had no interest in how the body functioned. For 1,000 years medicine was practiced only in convents and monasteries.
  • 700

    How did they treat disease

    The primary treatment was prayer and medication consisted of herbal mixtures and the care was custodial. The monks collected and translated the writings of the Greek and Roman physicians.
  • Period: 800 to 1400

    Middle Age

  • Period: 1350 to

    Renaissance

  • Period: 1501 to

    16th and 17th centuries

  • Period: to

    18th century

  • Period: to

    19th and 20th centuries

  • Period: to

    21st century