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150
Zhang Zhongjing
Zhang Zhongjing wrote and published one of the first medical texts in the world. He is referred as the sage of Eastern traditional Chinese medicine. His medical writing "Shang Han Lun" is believed to be the oldest complete medical text in the history of the world. The text was an assortment of symptoms and treatments on how to fight infectious disease. -
300
Diocles of Carystus
Diocles wrote the first systematic text on animal anatomy. He was greatly influenced by Hippocrates and his mentor, Aristotle. He also approached the study of medicine logically and systematically. His original writings on the medical applications of plants make him referred to be the first pharmacist. -
460
Hippocrates
Hippocrates is commonly referred to as the "Father of Western Medicine". He is responsible for further seperating the study of medicine and mythological and supernatural beliefs. He founded the first school dedicated to medicine, called the Hippocratic School of Medicine. Also, he developed scientific systems that seperated the study of medicine from other categories of study. -
Jan 1, 700
Bian Que Recognises Pulse and Develops Acupuncture
Bian Que is thought to be the inventor of acupuncture. Historians credit him with being the first recorded person to perform acupuncture and measure pulse as a diagnostic tool. -
Microscope
The invention of the microscope was significantly vital in the development of medicine. It was invented by an eyeglass maker from Holland called Zacharias Jannsen, that developed the first crude model of a compound model. The invention of the microscope was important to the development of medicine because it gave scientists visual access to the microscopic world, allowing them to study the behaviour of bacteria and cells. -
Blood Transfusion
Sir Christopher Wren is well-known for his architectural successes after the Great Fire of 1666. Less is known about his incredible medical innovations like performing the first intravenous injection by injecting alcohol into a dog. This was important at the because it strengthened ideas about blood flow and the circulatory system. He performed the first blood transfusion on a dog and then on a human, successfully. -
Discovery of Bacteria
Antony van Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria in the 1670's through the use of his relatively advanced microscopes, although the micro organisms were thought to be unimportant for years after they were discovered. The discovery of bacteria was extremely important because of the relationship that was to be made between bacteria and illness. -
Vaccination Processes
Edward Jenner is credited with the invention of the smallpox vaccine, but it had been effectively applied many times before Jenner knew of it. However he successfully promoted and distributed the information and effectiveness of the vaccine, which had not been done before. The development of the smallpox vaccine and the idea of vaccines in general was another huge leap in the advancement of medicne. -
Discovery of Germs Causing Disease
Louis Pasteur scientifically proved that microorganisms are responsible for the cause of many dieases. He developed many means of prevention including vaccines for rabies and pasteurisation, which is a process of heating liquids to a temperature high enough to eliminate already-present organisms that cause illness. -
Discovery of Antiseptic
Joseph Lister began applying carbolic acid to surgical instruments and post-surgery wounds and found that the onset of gangrene (when tissue dies when its blood supply is cut off) is greatly reduced. His idea about antisepsis came up when observing the effectiveness of carboilic acid had on reducing the stench of sewage. This was a significant medical innovation because the problems involved with infections from injury were causing issues up to this point. -
X-Ray
Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen won the first Nobel Prize for Physics for discovering and producing the first x-ray. He is referred to as the father of radiology and his innovation has proven to be one of the most important in modern medicine. -
Penicillin
Sir Alexander Fleming discovered properties in mould that fight bacteria. His discovery of penicillin was one of the greatest innovations in the history of medicine. Countless lives have been save through his development of a treatment that cured bacterial infection. This discovery marked on the major events in what is known as the "medical revolution". -
Pacemaker
A Canadian electrical engineer, John Hopps, invented the world's first cardiac pacemaker. His device was too big to be implanted inside a human body but an improved version was introduced by New York medical researcher Wilson Greatbatch in the late 1950s making it implantable and powered by a corrosion-free lithium battery. -
CT Scan
Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, an English electrical engineer, developed the diagnostic technique of x-ray computed technology. CT scanning uses a medical imaging method that generates a 2D image of a section of a 3D object through x-rays. It is convenient in the medical field because the images show bone, blood vessels, and soft tissue in great detail all at once. In 1979, together with Allan McLeod Cormack, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. -
Test-Tube Baby
A test-tube baby is a baby produced from fertilisation done in-vitro, which means it was done outside the mother's body. Louise Joy Brown, the first successful test-tube baby, was born in Great Britain. The procedure worried people, but it worked out fine, and Louise was born a perfectly healthy girl. Robert G. Edwards, the physiologist who developed the treatment, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2010. -
Artificial Heart
During the mid 20th century, several people developed the idea of an artificial heart. Robert Jarvik was the inventor of the first successful permanent artificial heart, the Jarvik 7. The first implantation of the Jarvik 7 was done in patient Barney Clark in 1982. -
Robotic Surgery
Robotic surgery was first introduced in 1985 to enhance the capabilities of surgeosn performing open surgery. This minimised the risk of infection, made hospital stays shorter, and reduced recuperation (recovering from injury or surgery). The first robotic surgeon was the PUMA 560 robotic surgical arm. -
Human Genome Project
The Human Genome Project was an international scientific research project with a primary goal of determining the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA, and of identifying and mapping about 20,000-25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional standpoint. -
Face Transplant
The first face transplant was done to restore a woman's face after she was mauled by her dog. This was a major breakthrough in surgical techniques because a face transplant is an extremely complex procedure. -
HPV Vaccination
The Gardasil vaccine prevents two types of HPV that cause about 70% of cervical cancers. The vaccine was developed since the mid 1980s, and was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as the first preventive HPV vaccine under the trade name Gardasil -
Aristotle
Aristotles approach to science was vital to the development of medicine. His way of thinking was one of the greateset innovations in scientific and medical history. He had a willingness to discard established theories because of new discoveries that logically made more sense than ideas that had previously been accepted. -
Alhazen - First Professional Surgeon
Alhazen was probably the first professional surgeon and further developed optics. He was an expert in several disciplines of science and mathematics. His studies and development of optics and the optical lens created the path for many tools and instruments responsible for the advancement of medicine. -
Imhotep - First Referenced Physician in History
Imhotep is thought to be one of the first few people recognised to approach medicine with scientific method. He kept records of diseases and their diagnosis, instead of relying entirely on the Gods and the supernatural world for solutions.
