Caroline Hinkle - Health Care History

Primitive Time

4000 BCE

1. Illness and diseases were a punishment from the Gods
2. Tribal witch doctors treated illness with ceremonies
3. Herbs and plants used as medicines (morphine and digitalis)
4. Trephining to create a hole in the skull
5. Average life span 20 years

Ancient Egyptians

3000 BCE

1. Physicians were priests
2. Bloodletting or leeches used as medical treatment
3. Average life span 20 years
4. The use of rituals, spells, incantations, talismans and amulets to heal illnesses
5. Herbs played a major part in Egyptian medicine

Ancient Chinese

1700 BCE

1. Believed in the need to treat the whole body by curing the spirit and nourishing the body
2. Recorded a pharmacopoeia of medications based mainly on the use of herbs
3. Used therapies such as acupuncture
4. Began to search for medical reasons for illness
5. Average life span was 20-30 years

Ancient Greeks

1200 BCE

1. First to observe the human body and the effects of disease – led to modern medical sciences.
2. Believed illness is a result of natural causes
3. Used therapies such as massage, art therapy, and herbal treatment
4. Average life span 25-35 years
5. Hippocrates and his students documented numerous illnesses in the Hippocratic Corpus, and developed the Hippocratic Oath for physicians, which is still in use today

Ancient Romans

753 BCE

1. Established first hospital (caring for solders in their homes)
2. First public health and sanitation systems by building sewers and aqueducts
3. Average life span 25-35 years
4. Roman medicine was highly influenced by Greek medicine
5. Combined various techniques using different tools, methodology, and ingredients.

Dark Ages

400

1. Began after the fall of the Roman Empire
2. Emphasis on saving the soul and study of medicine was prohibited
3. Monks and priests treated patients with prayer
4. Average life span 20-30 years
5. Instead of being isolated or shunned, the sick were integrated into society and taken care of by the community

Middle Ages

800

1. Renewed interest in medical practices of Greek and Romans
2. Bubonic Plague killed 75% of population in Europe and Asia
3. Average life span 20-35 years
4. Many diseases were thought to be caused by an excess of blood in the body and blood letting was seen as the obvious cure
5. laid the ground work for later, more significant discoveries

Renaissance

1350

1. Dissection of body led to increased understanding of anatomy and physiology
2. Invention of printing press allowed medical knowledge to be shared
3. Average life span 30-40 years
4. development of autopsy allowed society to use it for forensic and health purposes
5. Muslim scholars were making some major advances in the treatment of disease and injury

16th and 17th Centuries

1500

1. Cause of disease still not known – many people died from infections
2. Invention of the microscope allowed physicians to see disease-causing organisms.
3. Apothecaries led to development of pharmacies
4. First vaccination developed – smallpox
5. Average life span 35-45 years

18th-21st Centuries

1700

1. Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals
2. Infection control developed once microorganisms were associated with disease
3. ABO blood groups discovered
4. Organ Transplants
5. The Human Genome Project to identify all of the approximately 20,000 to 25,000 genes in the human
6. Average life span 90-100 years