History of Health Care
Debbie, Angel, Shraddha, & Emaan
Ancient Times - (Date unknown as it's not recorded exactly)
- Humans had to protect themselves against predators.
- Superstition : Illness/disease was caused by supernatural spirits
- Used Herbs and plants as a medicine
Ex: Digitalis from Foxglove plant - Which was chewed to strengthen the heart
Quinine from the bark of Cinchona - Which was used to control fever,muscle spasm
and Malaria.
Egyptians
2750 BC - The first earliest known surgery to be performed in Egypt.
2600 BC - Egyptian Imhotep describes the diagnosis and treatment of 200 diseases.
1450 BC - Hearst Papyrus was written. It's the first medical papyri of Egypt. It talks about urine, blood within the body, hair and bites from animals, bugs, etc.
Jewish Medicine
- Concentrated more on health rules concerning food, cleanliness and quarantine.
- Moses : Pre-Hippocratic Medical thought ; banned quackery (The only physician then was God alone)
- Day and Rest was the greatest contribution to human welfare.
Greek Medicine
- Hippocratic: no dissection, only onsertvations, careful notes of signs/symptoms of diseases, wrote standard of ethics which is the basis for today's medical basis
- Nymphodorus was noted for his combination of surgery with the use of drugs
Dark Ages (400-800 AD)
- Medicine practice only in convents and monasteries
- Epidemics: small pox, bubonic plague (Black Death)
Middle Ages (800-1400 AD)
- Persian physician, Rhazes, identifies smallpox
- Quantities Laws passed
- Leonardo da Vinci dissects a corpse
16th and 17th Century
- Leonardo da Vinci: anatomy of the body
- Anton van Leeuwenhoek: playing with lenses (invented microscope), Observed microorganisms.
- William Harvey: Circulation of blood
- Gabriele Fallopius: discovered tube from ear to throat
- Some quackery
18th Century
- Edward Jenner: Smallpox vaccination
- Joseph Priestly: discovered oxygen
- Benjamin Franklin: invented bifocals, found that colds could be passed from person to person.
- Laennec: invented the stethoscope
19th and 20th Century
- 1818 - James Blundell preformed the first successful blood tranfusion.
- 1853 - Charles Gabriel Pravaz and Alexander Wood develop the syringe.
- 1895 - Wilhelm Conrad discovers x-rays.
1900 - 1945
- 1901 - Karl Landsteiner introduced the system to classify blood into A, B, AB, and O groups.
- 1922 - Insulin was first used to treat diabetes.
- 1928 - Sir Alexander Flemming discovered penicillin.
- 1945 - First vaccine developed for influenza (flu).
1945 - 1975
- 1953 - James Watson and Francis Crick work on the structure of the DNA molecule.
- 1967 - Dr. Christian Barnard preformed the first human heart transplant.
- 1975 - Robert S. Ledley invented the CT-Scan.
1975 - Present
- 1977 - First vaccine developed for pneumonia.
- 1985 - Willem J. Kloff invented the artificial kidney dialysis machine.
- 2006 - First vaccine to target the cause of cancer.