History Of Medicine Flashcards
Prehistoric Medicine: 100,000 - 10,000 BC
- 100,000- 75,000 BC- homosapeins have disorganized camp fire sites
- 50,000 onwards- fire became centrally located, the dead were ceremonial buried at the periphery away from dead animals…hygiene
Healthcare benefits of burning dead away from the population
Less infections
Extinction of neandathrals
Hunting big prey for long time, Homo sapiens developed snare that allowed them to hunt small prey
Ancient Egyptians
Had 25 commandments in the book of the dead
Talks about taking care of the environment
Idea of hygiene and taking care of others
Announcements about alcohol (beer was popular) –> thinking about public health
Ancient Rome
Realize that waste is creating disease and infection
Created aqueducts for fresh water and sewers for the waster –> allowed the city to reach 1 million people –> after empire fell, these concepts were lost
Dhanvantari
Physician of the gods
Appears in Vedas and Puranas
Sekhmet
Egypt- Warrior goddess as well as goddess of healing
Depicted as lioness
Wu Tao
Lived in the Song Dynasty
Credited with performing medical miracles
Hippocrates
Observations of disease and its effect
Credited with writing about preventative medicine
4 Humors of Hippocratic Medicine
Blood- sanguine –> Air
Phlegm –phlegmatic –> water
Black bile- melancholic –> earth
Yellow bile- Choleric –> Fire
Which of the humors was considered dominant?
Blood
Medicine 10000 BC to 1500 AD
Associated heavily with religion, prayers, herbs and often wine
Black Death
Caused by a bacterium
Estimated to have killed 30-60% of Europe’s population
Andreas Vesalius
Published book of the fabric of the human body –> developed the use of technical drawings
William Harvey
First person to describe in detail what the systemic circulation was
Edward Jenner
Found out that if you caught cow pox it would prevent you from catching small pox
Florence Nightingale
First nurse to nurse the injured (instead of just cleaning)
Set up nurses training school
Public Health Act 1848 Victorian
The public health act’s aim was to improve local conditions in local town.
Make streets cleaner
Introduction of NHS
Aneurin Bevan bought the Health Service
Discovery of Penicillin 1923
Discovered by Alexander Fleming
1910 Flexner Report
First time medical schools were reviews and national standards set
Repeated reviews became the new norm
Recommended a high school education and at least 2 years of college level or university science for pre med
Medical schools should be 4 years in duration: 2 years basic science and 2 clinical
For profit schools should be closed or incorporated into universities
Tuskegee Syphilis Research
Researched the natural progression of untreated syphilis in rural black men in Alabama under the guarantee of receiving life long free health care from the US government
Experimental Design of Syphilis Study
Tuskegee University- historically black college
600 impoverished black men
399 had previously contracted syphilis before the study began
201 did not have the disease
Men were given free medical care, meals, and free burial insurance for participation
What happened after funding was lost for the syphilis study?
The study continued without informing men they would never be treated
Infected men weren’t told they had the infection and none were treated with penicillin even after the antibiotic became proven for the treatment of syphilis
Controversy around syphilis study
Researchers failed to treat patients appropriately after the 1940s validation of penicillin as an effective cure
Lead to IRB approval, informed consent, communication of diagnosis, an accurate reporting of test results
Modern Medicine: 1919-1939 (post WWI)
Growth period for modern medicine
More soldiers had died from infections than combat injuries
Spanish Flu epidemic
Expansion use of technologies such as X Ray machines, electron microscopes, use of insulin, start of antibiotic medications with Sulfa drugs for pneumonia and Mercury for STD infections
Medicine after 1945
Vaccines were developed to control childhood disease; polio, measles and rubella
Major advances in birth by 1960’s, the contraceptive pill was widely available, as well the IUD
Creation of new drugs post 1945
Success of penicillin during the war –> researchers wanted to study other moulds
Streptomycin (found in chickens) was used successfully to treat TB
Greater use of steroids in medicine
What year did kidney dialysis become available?
First tried in 1914
More available in 1960’s
Developments in Surgery
Broader range in surgery on the body after 1945 (i.e.: heart)
Cardiovascular improvements post 1953
Development of successful heart lung machine allowed for more complicated heart surgery to take place
Techniques have improved greatly with coronary bypasses to improve blood supply to the heart
Artificial arteries developed to improve blood flow
After 1961- pacemakers were introduced to maintain a regular heart beat
How was transplant surgery bettered?
Aid with drugs such as cortisone, azathioprine and cyclosporin to reduce rejection
Cancer treatment post 1945
The use of a combination of drugs, radiotherapy, and surgery have greatly increased a cancer patient’s chances of survival
US health spending
Much greater in all categories of care
Mainly ambulatory care and administration costs and hospitals and nursing homes
When doe the annual per capita healthcare costs by age increase exponentially?
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