Medicine Individuals Flashcards
Who was Hippocrates and how did he contribute to medicine?
Hippocrates, known as the Father of Medicine, was a Greek doctor who rejected supernatural explanations for disease, focusing instead on natural causes. He introduced the method of clinical observation and developed the theory of the 4 humours, which became a foundation of medical practice for centuries.
Who was Claudius Galen and how did he contribute to medicine?
Galen was a Roman doctor who built on Hippocrates’ ideas and introduced the theory of opposites as a treatment method. He advanced anatomical knowledge through animal dissection. His ideas dominated medical thinking for over 1,000 years due to support from the Christian Church.
Who was Andreas Vesalius and how did he contribute to medicine?
Vesalius was a 16th-century professor of anatomy who challenged Galen’s mistakes by dissecting human bodies. His detailed drawings in De Humani Corporis Fabrica advanced anatomical knowledge and encouraged others to question traditional ideas, an important step in the Renaissance.
Who was Ambroise Paré and how did he contribute to medicine?
Paré was a French surgeon who improved treatment of battlefield wounds by using soothing ointments instead of cauterization. He also introduced ligatures to stop bleeding, making surgery less painful and safer.
Who was William Harvey and how did he contribute to medicine?
Harvey was a 17th-century English doctor who discovered that blood circulates around the body, pumped by the heart. His work disproved Galen’s ideas about blood and laid the foundation for modern understanding of the circulatory system.
Who was Edward Jenner and how did he contribute to medicine?
Jenner was an 18th/19th-century doctor who developed the first vaccine, using cowpox to prevent smallpox. His work proved vaccination was effective and eventually led to the eradication of smallpox.
Who was James Simpson and how did he contribute to medicine?
Simpson was a 19th-century Scottish doctor who discovered chloroform as an anaesthetic in 1847, allowing pain-free surgery and childbirth. His work made surgery less traumatic, despite early opposition and risks of overdose.
Who was Robert Liston and how did he contribute to medicine?
Liston was a 19th-century surgeon who was the first in Europe to use anaesthetics during surgery. Known for his speed, his use of anaesthesia helped establish safer surgical practices despite some infamous mistakes.
Who was Edwin Chadwick and how did he contribute to medicine?
Chadwick was a public health reformer who linked poor sanitation to disease in his 1842 report. His recommendations influenced the Public Health Act of 1848, which improved living conditions and reduced the spread of disease.
Who was Dr. John Snow and how did he contribute to medicine?
Snow was a 19th-century doctor who proved cholera was spread through contaminated water by mapping outbreaks in London. His work on the Broad Street pump in 1854 is an early example of epidemiology, though he couldn’t prove why cholera spread.
Who was Florence Nightingale and how did she contribute to medicine?
Nightingale was a nurse who professionalized nursing during the Crimean War. She reduced death rates by improving hospital hygiene and later wrote Notes on Nursing (1860). She also set up Britain’s first nurse training school.
Who was Louis Pasteur and how did he contribute to medicine?
Pasteur was a French scientist who developed germ theory in 1861, proving that microbes caused disease. He also developed vaccines for diseases such as anthrax and rabies, transforming understanding of disease and prevention.
Who was Robert Koch and how did he contribute to medicine?
Koch was a German doctor who identified specific microbes that caused diseases like tuberculosis and cholera. He developed staining techniques to study bacteria, advancing germ theory and inspiring further research into disease prevention.
Who was Joseph Lister and how did he contribute to medicine?
Lister was a 19th-century surgeon who introduced antiseptics, using carbolic acid to reduce infection during surgery. His work drastically reduced mortality rates and showed the importance of cleanliness in surgery.
Who was Alexander Fleming and how did he contribute to medicine?
Fleming was a 20th-century scientist who discovered penicillin in 1928, the first antibiotic. His work revolutionized the treatment of bacterial infections, although it took others to mass-produce the drug.
Who was William Beveridge and how did he contribute to medicine?
Beveridge was a social reformer who wrote the 1942 Beveridge Report, which proposed the NHS to fight the ‘Five Giants’ (Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor, and Idleness). His ideas led to the creation of the Welfare State after World War II.
Who was Joseph Bazalgette and how did he contribute to medicine?
Bazalgette was a 19th-century engineer who designed London’s modern sewage system after the ‘Great Stink’ of 1858. His work reduced the spread of waterborne diseases like cholera and improved public health.
Who were Ernest Chain and Howard Florey, and how did they contribute to medicine?
Chain and Florey were 20th-century scientists who developed the process to mass-produce penicillin during World War II. Their work made the antibiotic widely available, saving millions of lives.
