Term | Definition |
Primitive Times
6000 - 3000 BCE | Witch doctors were the doctors at the time.
Trepanning was used to cut hole in skull to treat insanity, epilepsy and headaches.
Used plants and herbs.
Lifespan 20 years. |
Egyptians
3000 - 300 BCE | Began keeping medical records. Believed the body was a system of channels for blood, urine, feces, sperm, and sweat. Used bloodletting and leeches to open channels. Lifespan 20-30 years |
Chinese
1700 BCE - 220 AD | Prohibited dissection due to religious reasons. Used acupuncture and needles to treat the whole body. Lifespan 20-30 years |
Greeks
1200 BCE - 200 BCE | First to stress good diet and cleanliness.
Research into physical cause of disease.
Lifespan 25-35 years |
Romans
700 BCE - 410 AD | Public health and sanitation systems
First to organize health care and early hospitals.
Lifespan 25-35 years |
Arabic Islamic
700 - 1500 AD | Universal Health Care, licensing for doctors and pharmacist |
Dark ages
400 - 800 AD | Study of medicine prohibited, Monks and priest cared for the sick. Prayers and divine intervention used to treat illness. Emphasis on saving the soul.
Lifespan 20-30 years |
Middle ages
800 -1400 AD | Doctors began to keep careful notes and Plague kills 3/4 of population. Diseases such as smallpox, typhoid, malaria, and tuberculosis were prominent. Physicians began studying at medical universities.
Lifespan 20-35 years |
Renaissance
1350 -1650 | Rebirth of science and medicine.
Development of the printing press.
Lifespan 30-40 years |
16th and 17th Centuries | Cause of disease still not known.
Apothecaries made, prescribed and sold medications.
Anton van Leeuwenhoek invented microscope .
William Harvey describes the circulation of blood.
Lifespan 35-45 years |
18th Century | Edward Jenner developed vaccination for smallpox .
Lifespan 40-50 years |
19th Century | Florence Nightingale founder of modern nursing
Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross
Louis Pasteur proved that microbes caused disease
Bayer introduced aspirin in powder form
Lifespan 40-60 years |
20th Century | Francis Crick and James Watson discover DNA.
Sigmund Freud studies form the foundation for psychology.
Alexander Flemming discovers penicillin.
Lifespan 60-80 years |
21st Century | Human Genome mapped
Nanotechnology
Regenerative Medicine
Genomic Medicine |
Hippocrates
460-377 BCE | Greek, father of Western medicine |
Claudius Galen
129-199 | Roman physician, body regulated by four humors, described symptoms of inflammation and studied infectious diseases and dissected animals |
Anton Van Leevwenhoek | Invented the microscope |
Wilhelm Roentgen | Invented the x-ray |
René Laennec | Invented stethoscope |
Gabriel Fallopus | Discovered fallopian tubes and tympanum membrane |
Gabriel Fahrenheit | Created first mercury Thermometer |
Edward Jenner | Invented smallpox vaccine |
Florence Nightingale | Founder of modern nursing |
Alexander Fleming | Discovered penicillin |
Louis Pasteur | Germ theory Microbes cause disease. Discovered pasteurization and rabies vaccine. |
Elizabeth Blackwell | 1st women to receive medical degree |
Benjamin Franklin | Invented bifocals in 18th century |
Ambroise Pare | The father of Modern Surgery in 16th-17th century |
Jonas Salk | Created Polio Vaccine |
Marie Curie | Isolated radium in 1910 |
Leonardo Da Vinci | Artist who used dissection to draw the human body |
Clara Barton | Founded the American Red Cross in 1881 |
Robert Koch | Developed the culture plate method to identify pathogens |
Joseph Lister | Began using disinfectants and antiseptics during surgery |
Rhazes | An Arab physician who began the use of animal gut for structure material. |
Caduceus | Symbol of the healing arts, Snakes are wise, Wings represent mercy. Staff represents learning and work it takes to get into the health field. |
Rod of Asclepius | No wings, Only one snake |
Ingaz Semmelweis | Identified the causes of childbed fever:
Lack of Hand washing!
He was laughed at by other doctors. |
Anesthesia | Early physicians used herb, hashish & alcohol to relieve the pain of surgery. Many died from shock and pain. Loss of feeling or sensation |
Genomic medicine | personalized medical care that uses a patients unique combination of genes and chromosome to prevent illness and maintain health. |
Regenerative medicine | A form, of medical care that creates living tissue to replace tissue or organ function lost due to age, disease, injury or birth disorder. |
Nanotechnology | A field of science that manipulates atoms and molecules to create devices that are thousands of times smaller than current technologies allow. |