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History - Medicine > c.1900 - present: Medicine in Modern Britain > Flashcards

c.1900 - present: Medicine in Modern Britain Flashcards

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1
Q

When did Wilhelm Rontgen discover the X-ray?

A

1895

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2
Q

Why didn’t X-rays work during the first world war?

A

Because the equipment included glass tubes that were unreliable and often stopped working.
The X-ray machines were also often located in hospitals which were miles from the wounded solders.

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3
Q

Who developed mobile x-ray units?

A

Marie Curie, a Polish scientist.

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4
Q

When did Marie Curie invent the mobile X-ray machines?

A

1914

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5
Q

What were the three main impacts of the war on medicine?

A
  • it made x-rays more reliable and mobile
  • the problem of blood loss was overcome
  • sped up the development of plastic surgery
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6
Q

Before 1900 why were blood transfusions rarely successful?

A

The blood of the recipient often clotted.
Blood also clotted if it was stored outside the body.

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7
Q

Who discovered blood groups and when?

A

Karl Landsteiner in 1900.

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8
Q

What did Karl Landsteiner discover in 1900?

A

Blood groups. And that certain blood groups couldn’t be mixed together as the blood would clot, blocking the blood vessels.

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9
Q

What did Landsteiner’s discovery on blood groups impact?

A

It meant that doctors could perform more successful blood transfusions, as long as the donor’s blood group was the same as the patient’s.

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10
Q

What did doctors discover about blood clots in 1914?

A

Doctors found that sodium citrate stopped blood clotting so it could be stored.

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11
Q

What allowed blood to be stored?

A

The knowledge that sodium citrate stopped blood from clotting.

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12
Q

When was the first ever blood depot set up and where?

A

1917 at the Battle of Cambrai.

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13
Q

When was the British National Blood Transfusion Service established?

A

1946

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14
Q

What else was discovered to impact health as well as disease?

A

Viruses, genetics and lifestyle.

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15
Q

What did Dmitry Ivanovsky discover in 1892?

A

He investigate mosaic, a disease that was killing tobacco plants.
He found that the cause was an extremely small microbe that remained in water even after bacteria were removed.

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16
Q

What did Martinus Beijernick find in 1898?

A

That the microbes Ivanovsky discovered had different properties to bacteria - he labelled these microbes viruses.

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17
Q

Who first discovered DNA and when?

A

Francis Crick and James Watson in 1953.

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18
Q

What did Watson and Cricks discovery about DNA allow?

A

It allowed other scientists to find the genes that caused genetic conditions - diseases that are passed on from one generation to another.
Including: cystic fibrosis, haemophilia and sickle-cell anaemia.

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19
Q

What has Watson and Crick’s work on DNA and other scientists work impacted?

A

It has meant that diagnosis and treatment of genetics conditions as improved.
Scientists can now produce a synthetic protein to replicate the work of a faulty gene and treat inherited conditions using techniques like gene therapy.

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20
Q

What was one of the biggest breakthroughs in genetic research?

A

The completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 - this identified all the genes in human DNA.

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21
Q

Give some examples of life-style choices linked to particular health conditons?

A
  1. smoking - causes lung cancer
  2. obesity - increases the chance of getting heart disease or diabetes
  3. drinking too much alcohol - liver disease
  4. overexposure to UV radiation - skin cancer
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22
Q

What changed in the 19th century about causes of disease?

A

Advances is science and technology has shown that there is not just one cause of disease (bacteria) but there are also viral infections, genetic mutations and our lifestyle choices.

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23
Q

What did blood test allow for during the 20th century?

A

They allowed doctors to diagnose more illness, and they made diagnosis more accurate, providing doctors with clearer information of what is wrong.
This means they can be more confident when deciding how best to treat their patients.

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24
Q

What were blood test originally designed for?

A

To test patients blood groups before doing a blood transfusion.

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25
Q

How three main things can blood tests test for?

A
  • cholesterol level, which can help diagnose their chance of suffering a heart attack or stroke
  • check DNA, this can diagnose a genetic condition
  • sometimes it can show a certain type of cancer
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26
Q

When were blood pressure monitors invented and developed?

A

1880s and 1890s

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27
Q

What did blood pressure monitors help doctors do?

A

They let doctors and patients see whether disease, lifestyle factors or medicines are causing high blood pressure, which can cause damage to the heart.

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28
Q

When were blood sugar monitors introduced?

A

In the mid 20th century.

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29
Q

What did blood sugar monitors allow?

A

They allow those with diabetes to make sure their blood sugar is at the right level.

30
Q

What technological advancements and medical scans were developed in the 19th and 20th century?

A
  • x-rays
  • computers that allowed ultrasound scanning
  • Computed Tomography (CT or CAT) scans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
31
Q

What does an ultrasound involve?

A

This uses high frequency sound waves, which bounce off the patient’s organs and other tissues to create an image of them on the computer.

32
Q

When were Computed Tomography scans invented and by who?

A

In 1972 by Godfrey Hounsfield.

33
Q

What did Computed Tomography scans do?

A

They use x-rays and a computer to make detailed images of parts of the patient’s body.

34
Q

When were MRI scans initially invented and when did they become more widely used?

A

1970s and 1980s

35
Q

What did MRI scans do?

A

They are extremely powerful radio waves and magnetic fields to construct images.

36
Q

Overall how did improvements in technology impact treatment?

A

Medical scans and other advancements, have given doctors a much more detailed picture of what’s going on inside their patients body.
This enabled them to intervene much earlier, before the disease has become too advanced.

37
Q

What was the first antibiotic, who discovered it and when did they discover it?

A

Penicillin, Alexander Fleming in 1928

38
Q

How did Alexander Fleming discover Penicillin?

A

By chance, he went to clean up some old culture dishes which he had been growing staphylococci on and found that a fungal spore had landed and grown on one of the dishes. The colonies of staphylococci around the mould had stopped growing.

39
Q

Who found a way to purify penicillin?

A

Florey and Chain

40
Q

What did Florey and Chain do in their process to try to purify penicillin?

A

They didn’t have the resources to produce penicillin in large amounts so they made penicillin for their first clinical trial by growing penicillin notatum in every container they could find in their lab. Their patient began to recover, only to die when the penicillin ran out.

41
Q

Why did Florey go to America to get penicillin mass produced?

A

Because he knew that it was vital in treating the wounds of soldiers fighting in World War II.
British chemical firms were too busy making explosives to start mass production.

42
Q

When did the US begin to give grants to businesses manufacturing penicillin?

A

1941

43
Q

When did the British start mass producing penicillin?

A

1943

44
Q

How were Fleming, Florey and Chain rewarded for their work with penicillin?

A

They were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1945.

45
Q

What other antibiotics were discovered after 1945?

A

treatment for:
- lung infections
- acne
- bacterial meningitis

46
Q

What industry did new treatments like magic bullets and antibiotics impact?

A

Pharmaceutical industry.

47
Q

When did pharmaceutical companies start producing cancer drugs?

A

1960s

48
Q

What problem arose soon after antibiotic drugs started being mass produced for public use and what did this result in?

A

Antibiotic resistant bacteria.
This has increased the levels of disease and time taken for patients to recover.

49
Q

What alternative treatments were used due to a mistrust of modern medicine and technology?

A

Acupuncture - putting needles in specific points of the patient’s skin to relive pain.
Homeopathy - using extremely weak solutions of natural substances.

50
Q

What was the first ever successful transplant and when was it performed?

A

In 1905, the cornea of the eye was transplanted successfully.

51
Q

When and who performed the first ever successful heart transplant and what was the result of it?

A

It was carried out by the South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard in 1967.
The patient only survived for 18 days - he died of pneumonia.

52
Q

Why was it so difficult to perform transplants early on and when was this solved?

A
  • the body would reject the transplant
  • it’s immune system would attack the implant as if it were a virus
  • doctors lacked effective immunosuppressant’s
  • since the 1970s, researchers have developed increasingly effective immunosuppressant
  • making transplants safer and more likely to be successful
53
Q

Who discovered radiation therapy (to kill cancer) and when?

A

1896-1898 by Antoine Henri Becquerel, Marie Curie and Pierre Curie.

54
Q

What where lasers used for after their development in the 1950s?

A
  • correct vision problems
  • in cancer treatments
  • dentistry
55
Q

What are the two main medical advances since the 1980s due to advances in technology?

A
  • robot-assisted surgery
  • keyhole surgery
56
Q

When was the first surgical robot used and when did it become popular, what did it allow?

A

The first surgical robot was introduced in 1985.
Robot-assisted surgery only became widely used after 2000.
Allows surgeons to make smaller cuts - less scarring, less infection and quicker healing.

57
Q

What is keyhole surgery useful for and what is it used for and what are the advantages?

A
  • useful for investigating the causes of pain or infertility
  • used for vasectomies, removing cysts or the appendix, mending hernias and other minor operations
  • leaves patients with smaller scars and shorter recovery
58
Q

When did the governments laissez faire attitude end?

A

after 1900

59
Q

Which two reports showed widespread poverty and who published them?

A
  • ‘Life and Labour of the People in London’ written by Charles Booth
  • ‘Poverty, a Study of Town Lide’ written by Seebohm Rowntree
60
Q

What was Booth’s Report?

A
  • Charles Booth wrote it
  • In 1889
  • Called ‘Life and Labour of the People in London
  • It showed that 30% of Londoners were living in severe poverty
  • Booth showed that some wages were so low they weren’t enough to support a family
61
Q

What was Rowntree’s Report?

A
  • Written by Seebohm Rowntree
  • In 1901
  • Called ‘Poverty, a Study of Town Life’
  • Showed that 28% of people in York couldn’t afford basic food and housing
62
Q

What made the government realise that they needed to improve basic healthcare in 1899?

A

When the Boer War broke out in 1899, army officers found that 40% of volunteers were physically unfit for military service - mostly due to poverty-related illnesses.

63
Q

What acts did the government take to improve poverty between 1906-11?

A

1906 - free school meals
1907 - free medical inspections in schools
1908 - old age pensions
1909 - labour exchanges
1911 - National Insurance Act

64
Q

What did the National Insurance Act introduce?

A

Health insurance for workers.

65
Q

When was the NHS established?

A

1948

66
Q

Who introduced the NHS?

A

Aneurin Bevan

67
Q

What two vaccination campaigns did the government launch and when did they do this?

A
  • Diphtheria started in 1940
  • Polio started in 1956
68
Q

What two types of campaigns did the government launch in the 20th century?

A

Vaccination campaigns and lifestyle campaigns.

69
Q

How has advances in science and technology improved diagnosis of lung cancer?

A
  • chest x-rays can show if there’s anything on the lung that shouldn’t be there
  • CT scans give a more detailed image of the lungs
  • bronchoscopy can be used
70
Q

How has advancements in science and technology improved treatment of lung cancer?

A
  • surgery can remove the effected lung
  • radiotherapy and chemotherapy are used
71
Q

When were cigarette adverts banned from television?

A

1965

72
Q

When did the government ban smoking in public in England Wales and Scotland?

A

Scotland - 2006
England and Wales - 2007

History - Medicine (5 decks)

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