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4000 BCE
Primitive Times
Herbs and plants were used as medicine and a procedure called trepanation or trephining (boring a hole in the skull) was used to treat insanity and epilepsy. The average life span was only 20 years. This is important to medicine today because some of the plants and herbs that were used are still used in medicine today, and trepidation was the first neuro-surgery type procedure. Even though this procedure didn't fix the patients' problems, they were making attempts to treat people. -
3000 BCE
Ancient Egyptians
The Ancient Egyptians were the earliest people to maintain health records and used bloodletting and leeches to open clogged channels. The channels they believed were for air, blood, urine, sperm, tears, and feces. Health records are a vital tool that physicians use to decide on patients' care. Even though we know now that channels aren't how the body works it was a first attempt at understanding the body. Leeches aren't used for the same purpose but, can be used to treat certain wounds today. -
1700 BCE
Ancient Chinese
Began the search for medical reasons for illness rather than religious basis and believed that health started with nourishing the body and curing the spirit. Herbal medicine was also very prevalent. This is important to medicine today because it was a first step toward understanding how the body works. Proper nourishment can help people have strong immune systems which in turn means they get sick less. Some herbal medicines that were created are still in use today. -
1200 BCE
Ancient Greeks
This time period was the beginning of modern medical science. They started to believe that disease was caused by natural causes, diet and cleanliness were a way to prevent disease, and used therapies such as massage, art therapy, and herbal treatments that are still used today. These discoveries are so important to medicine today because they helped to understand how disease was actually caused. Diet and cleanliness are still a big part of how to avoid getting sick as often today. -
337 BCE
Hippocrates
The Ancient Greek Hippocrates is considered the Father of Medicine. He developed an organized method to observe the human body, recorded signs and symptoms of many diseases, and created high standards of ethics.
This is important to medicine today because it was the first step toward understanding the body and diseases. The standards of ethics that he created are super important and are called the Oath of Hippocrates which is still used in most facilities today. -
150
Claudius Galen
Ancient Roman Claudius Galen established a lot of medical beliefs including the humor theory and that disease was caused by the imbalance of the humors. He described symptoms and studied many diseases. He also dissected animals to determine the functions of muscles, kidneys, and the bladder. His theories of humors while wrong were the first step toward understanding why we got sick. By determining the functions of organs that humans also have he helped us understand how the body worked. -
410
Ancient Romans
They were the first to organize medical care, develope hospitals, and began public health/sanitation systems. Diet, exercise, and medications were used to treat disease. This is all super important to the medical system today because it started how our medical system works. Organizing medical care and creating the first hospitals set up how our health care system is built. Public health and sanitation systems create cleaner environments so that fewer people got sick and are important today. -
1346
Black Plague
The black plague or bubonic plague was a disease spread by fleas that killed 3/4 of the populations of Europe and Asia. This was important to the advancement of medicine because the first respirators were invented and used by doctors to avoid getting sick. Masks or respirators are still used today in medical settings. -
1400
Middle Ages
Arabs advanced pharmacology and required that physicians pass exams and obtain licenses, and physicians began to obtain knowledge at medical universities. Medical universities and required exams and licenses are super important because they created doctors who were more qualified to do their jobs, and licensing and credentials are still required today. The advancement of pharmacology created more medicines that are still used to treat people today. -
1500
Renaissance
The Renaissance was the first time period where dissection of the human body was allowed and doctors and scientists had a better understanding of anatomy and physiology. These discoveries are important to medicine today because the understanding of anatomy is what helps us diagnose and treat patients. Without understanding anatomy, surgery would be incredibly risky and it would be hard to figure out what part of the body the illness is coming from. -
Ambroise Pare
Ambroise Pare was a French surgeon in the 15th century who is known to be the Father of Modern Surgery. He established the use of ligatures to bind arteries and stop bleeding, improved treatments of fractures, eliminated the use of boiling oil to cauterize wounds and promoted the use of artificial limbs. This surgeon is so important to medicine because he created many practices that we still use today such as binding and the use of artificial limbs. -
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
Anton van Leeuwenhoek is often called the "Father of Microbiology" because of his discovery of bacteria and other microscopic organisms. Leeuwenhoek created basic microscopes to observe these bacteria and microorganisms. The reason his work is super important today is that it is the basis of microbiology today. -
Edward Jenner
Edward Jenner was the man who created the smallpox vaccine after figuring out that people who had been sick with cowpox weren't affected by smallpox. This discovery was so important to medicine today because it led to the creation of many vaccines for all kinds of illnesses like covid, the flu, tetanus, HIV, and many more. -
Rene Laennec
Rene Laennec was a French physician who is often called the Father of Pulmonary Diseases. He invented the stethoscope, which began as a piece of rolled paper and evolved into a wooden tube that physicians inserted into their ears. His invention of the stethoscope was so important because by listening to the heart and lung sounds our understanding of the body grew. This led to Laennec discovering many medical conditions such as bronchiectasis, melanoma, cirrhosis, and tuberculosis. -
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale is known as the founder of modern nursing leading 38 nurses to serve in the Crimean War. Conditions of medical care were horrible resulting in hundreds of soldiers dying due to poor hygiene and unsanitary conditions. She fought for the reform of military hospitals and efficiency/cleanliness. Due to her efforts, death rates reduced by 2/3. She is important to medicine today because many practices she implemented are still used today to give patients the best care possible. -
Clara Barton
Clara Barton is the founder of the American Red Cross and petitioned for the Treaty of Geneva to be ratified. Her work is super important because the Treaty of Geneva made it so that the sick and wounded soldiers can be provided relief, and the Red Cross made it so that Americans were provided disaster relief during peacetime and war. -
Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur contributed many discoveries to the practice of medicine, including proving that microorganisms cause disease, pasteurizing milk to kill bacteria, and creating the vaccine for rabies. His contributions were so important to medicine because milk is now safe for us to drink without all of the harmful diseases and without the rabies vaccine being invented people would still be getting sick with rabies. -
Marie Curie
Marie Curie isolated radium in 1910, which was super important to medicine because through her work she figured out that radium could destroy diseased cells faster than healthy cells. This led to radiation as a treatment for tumors. Radiation is still used today as a cancer treatment. -
Francis Crick and James Watson
Francis Crick and James Watson with Maurice Wilkins discovered the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA. Their discovery was so important because it provided motivation for molecular genetics and biochemistry and provided a basis for genetic research conducted today. -
President Clinton passed HIPAA
President Clinton passed HIPPA which stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability which was super important to medicine today because it protects the privacy of patients and makes it easier for people to get and keep insurance.