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659
Dental Amalgams
One of the most important contributions to medicine from medieval China was to creation of amalgams for dental procedures. A text from the year 659 details the first use of a substance for tooth fillings, which was made up of silver and tin. The process was not used in Europe until the 16th century. -
Jan 1, 754
Pharmacies
The first pharmacy was established in Baghdad in the year 754. Pharmacies proved to be very popular and more drug stores soon opened up around the Arabic world. By the 12th century they could be found in Europe. -
925
Rhazes
Rhazes, a genius physician in diagnosis and treatment of kidney calculi in medical history. -
1231
Medical Education in Universities
The rise of universities throughout Europe would bring about important, but gradual, changes to the practices of medicine. Many medieval universities would teach physicians and become the main centers through which teach physicians and become the main centers through which medical knowledge would be shared. -
1352
Eyeglasses
We are not sure who invented eyeglasses to help correct vision, but by the end of the 13-century it seems that the product was well known in Italy. -
1423
Renaissance Hospitals
A change in European healthcare was the establishment of hospitals, although these were often the preserve of the wealthy. Surgical procedures improved and survival from even simple procedures increased, and the City State of Venice, as early as 1423, made the island of Santa Maria Di Nazaret into a hospital for isolating contagious patients from the rest of the population. -
1493
New diseases and cures
Physicians developed better cures, built upon observation rather than archaic theory. Adding to the herbs and cures often used by the Islamic physicians, explores to the New World and Asia brought back other cures, such as Quinine, from the bark of the Quina tree, a preparation still used in the treatment of malaria and its symptoms. -
Renaissance Anatomy - Dissection, Art, and Physiology
The main change in Renaissance medicine was largely due to the increase in anatomical knowledge, aided by an easing of the legal and cultural restrictions on dissecting cadavers. This allowed doctors to gain a much better understanding of the human body and get rid of techniques that harmed rather than cured, such as blood letting, the process of draining blood from a vein to ‘rebalance’ the humors. -
Robert Hooke reflective microscope
Hooke's reputation in the history of biology largely rests on his book Micrographia, published in 1665. Hooke devised the compound microscope and illumination system shown above, one of the best such microscopes of his time, and used it in his demonstrations at the Royal Society's meetings. With it he observed organisms as diverse as insects, sponges, bryozoans, foraminifera, and bird feathers -
Francis Bacon uses microscope to discover plague fleas
An English politician named Sir Francis Bacon developed a method for philosophers to use in weighing the truthfulness of knowledge. While Bacon agreed with medieval thinkers that humans too often erred in interpreting what their five senses perceived, he also realized that people’s sensory experiences provided the best possible means of making sense of the world. -
Louis Pasteur pasteurization of milk
Pasteurization is the process of heating a liquid to below the boiling point to destroy microorganisms. It was developed by Louis Pasteur in 1864 to improve the keeping qualities of wine. Commercial pasteurization of milk began in the late 1800s in Europe and in the early 1900s in the United States. -
Joseph Lister practice of medical asepsis
Joseph Lister is the surgeon who introduced new principles of cleanliness which transformed surgical practice in the late 1800s. We take it for granted that a surgeon will guard a patient's safety by using aseptic methods. Lister moved to Glasgow in 1860 and became a Professor of Surgery. -
Ignaz Semmelweis shows importance of hand washing
he germ theory of disease had not yet been accepted in Vienna. Thus, Semmelweis concluded some unknown "cadaverous material" caused childbed fever. He instituted a policy of using a solution of chlorinated lime for washing hands between autopsy work and the examination of patients. -
John Snow stops outbreak of cholera
He was an English physician and a leader in the development of anaesthesia and medical hygiene. He is considered one of the fathers of modern epidemiology, in part because of his work in tracing the source of a cholera outbreak in Soho, London, in 1854. -
Bubonic plague hits San Francisco
The San Francisco plague of 1900–1904 was an epidemic of bubonic plague centered on San Francisco's Chinatown. It was the first plague epidemic in the continental United States. -
Alexander fleming discovers penicillin
In 1928 Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, made from the Penicillium notatum mold, but he did not receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery until 1945 -
first HMO insurance
Early HMOs and HMO institutions developed in the 1930s. They may have had some intellectual roots in the workers' cooperative movement of 19th century England. -
Salk discovers polio vaccine
In the 1950s Salk and Sabin developed separate vaccines—one from killed virus and the other from live virus—to combat the dreaded disease polio. Jonas Salk became a national hero when he allayed the fear of polio with his vaccine, approved in 1955. -
Managed health care; growth in uninsured
Confirm that the patient is really uninsured.
Talk openly with patients about the cost of your services.
Make the most of your cognitive services.
Reduce polypharmacy.
Choose generic drugs whenever possible.
Take advantage of low-cost formularies.
Be patient with patient assistance programs. -
WHO declares smallpox eradicated
The last known natural case was in Somalia in 1977. It was declared eradicated in 1980 following a global immunization campaign led by the World Health Organization. Smallpox is transmitted from person to person via infective droplets during close contact with infected symptomatic people. -
steve thomas used sterile maggots for infectious wound treatment
Larval therapy using this species of fly was widely prevalent for about 20 years but fell into disuse in the early 1940s with the introduction of antibiotics. It was revived in the USA in the mid-1980s and in the UK in 1995 when the Biosurgical Research Unit (BRU) was established in South Wales. -
Gardasil a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer approved by the FDA
FDA approved Gardasil on June 8, 2006. It is approved for females 9-26 years of age to protect against cervical, vulvar and vaginal cancers caused by Human Papillomavirus types 16 and 18 and genital warts caused by HPV types 6 and 11.
