The Medical Revolution
Where it all started...
"Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do "practice"?"
Health before the Medical Revolution
The Medical Revolution began approximately around the 1800s, until the 20th century. Initially, its main purpose was to help restore a world that was heading toward destruction. However, before anyone or anything was able to advance the world in the topic of medicine, the world was quite a sad place to live in. Anything was able to conquer and take someone's life away in seconds because the world didn't have the technologies and tools at the time. Diseases and widespread conditions, including syphilis and malaria, spread quickly, and many had trouble containing them because they affected people at a rapid rate. Over the years, medical conditions were starting to be the cause of many deaths.
Discoveries of the Medical Revolution
It all started with the Birth of Hippocrates. Hippocrates was a Greek physician and is considered the father of medicine. He first believed and accepted that diseases result from an imbalance of the four bodily humors. After Hippocrates came the birth of Galen, considered by many to be the most important contributor to medicine. A couple of years after, Dutchman Zacharius Jannssen invents the microscope. In 1670, Anton van Leeuwenhoekrefines the microscope and fashions nearly 500 models. He also is known for discovering blood cells and observing animal and plant tissues and microorganisms.
1818- British obstetrician James Blundell performs the first successful transfusion of human blood.
1842- Surgeon Crawford W Long uses ether as a general anesthetic for surgery.
1844- Doctor Horace Wells, dentist, uses nitrous oxide as an anesthetic.
1870- Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch establish the germ theory of disease.
1882- the first vaccine for rabies.
1895- German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovers X rays. Ronald Ross demonstrates that malaria parasites are transmitted via mosquitoes.
1897- the first vaccine of the plague.
1899- Felix Hoffman develops aspirin.
1926- the first vaccine for whooping cough.
1922- insulin was first used to treat disease.
1927- the first vaccine for tuberculosis.
1928- Scottish bacteriologist Sir Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.
1935- the first vaccine for yellow fever.
1945- the first vaccine of influenza.
1964- the first vaccine for measles.
1967- the first vaccine for the mumps.
1974- the first vaccine for chicken pox.
1977- the first vaccine for pneumonia.
1978- the first vaccine for meningitis.
1983- HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is discovered.
1992 - the first vaccine for hepatitis A.
1998- the first vaccine for Lyme disease.
2007- scientist discover how to use human skin cells to create embryonic stem cells.
- Hippocrates of Kos, also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the Age of Pericles, who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine
Advances of the Medical Revolution
The Medical Revolution initially began to help and explore many different places where damage occurred. It took a while to get started, but once there was a hope of help in the world. Medicines and advances took off. Overall the more people involved, the more successful the world would be. Of course, challenges and obstacles were a bump in the road. However, as a result, research and new inventions skyrocketed. When the medicine failed, inventors took a different approach in order to gain what they wanted. They sought to achieve what the older generations couldn't. Hence the discovery of the microscope, vaccines, and certain types of medicine. as well as the improvement and advances in the use of technology.
The Effects of the Medical Revolution
Those discoveries and advancements have paved the way for new opportunities in the medical field. Within the 21st century, highly advanced research in various fields of science was conducted which allowed scientist to further develop the discoveries made in the past. The technology available today is also a huge contributor to the rapid rates of increased medical advancements. For example, around the 20th century, antibioticsWe're been discovered and developed to cure infectious diseases and starting in the late 18th century, vaccines appeared as a method of combating afflictions such as smallpox. Today, however, the growth of medical technology has allowed scientist to study molecular medicine using gene therapy and stem cells.
Mortality Rates
An obvious benefit of the medical advancements made in the 20th and 21st century would be the quick decline in mortality rates due to infectious diseases. For instance, the roaring outbreak of smallpox took a global death toll of approximately 300 million people in the early 20th century alone. Nevertheless, vaccinations have been discovered and developed to the point where in the World Health Organization was able to declare the disease to be eradicated in December 1979. Additionally, molecular imaging technologies such as optical molecular imaging and single photon emission computed tomography, have evolved quickly in the 21st century to facilitate stem cell researchers lower the mortality rates of diseases including heart disease.
This graph clearly depicts the rapid decline in heart disease among men in Slovakia, Greece, Finland, Norway, Spain, and France from approximately 1970 to 2012
Controversy of Medical Improvements
Many of the issues that present themselves with medical improvements are controversial topics that translate across cultures. Many people find it difficult to accept the procedure used to treat patients and their methods of diagnosing them. For example, many people are a post to stem cell research, using ethical grounds to support their beliefs. They are against this research because harvesting the embryonic stem cells usually leads to the death of the embryo; Although scientist have presented the possibility of retrieving the stem cells without killing the embryo. Another controversy is found in the belief of alternative medicine-Such as acupuncture and chiropractics- as opposed to traditional medicine.
Improving Technology
Technology is now moving so rapidly that within a decade the small tools and medicines will look primitive. We are moving into an error that is based around technology and what it has in store for us. Devices like smartphones and tablets are starting to replace the usual monitoring and recording systems in hospitals. With the use of these new advancements, people are able to be treated fully in the privacy of their homes. This is just the start. Technology still has a long way to go, whether it be drug delivering devices or bionic limbs. It constantly is developing into better and more useful implements, that help doctors and nurses jobs make their jobs much easier, it allows them to help patients much faster and the surgeries and ideas are essentially more reliable.
The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.
The Future of Medicine
We live in an age when there seems to be a medical breakthrough in the headlines every other day. New discoveries seem to immediately be put into practice. Every new medicine is tested and put through a series of trials before we can put it out to the public for use. We have started to think about the future and what it holds for medicine. Doctors and nurse predict that the future will present greater things and more opportunities for medical growth. They infer that the new medicines and cures for things that never seem curable will result in an increase in new technologies and advancements.