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Period: 4000 BCE to 3000 BCE
Early Beginnings
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3900 BCE
What Were Diseases Caused by?
During this time humans were very superstitious and believed that they were caused by evil spirits. -
3600 BCE
How Did They Treat The Sick?
Tribal doctors would perform ceremonies to banish or force out evil spirits. For example, some doctors would remove part of the cranium in order to get rid of demons, some would pray, or others would use herbs and plants for medicines. -
3100 BCE
Medicines Still Used Today
Examples of medicines still used today are, Digitalis, Quinine, Belladonna, atropine, and Morphine. These all come from plants and were all used to treat severe pain. -
Period: 2999 BCE to 399
Ancient Times
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2900 BCE
Ancient Egyptians
Like the people in ancient times, the ancient Egyptians also were superstitious and believed that the gods could heal them, repetition of common diseases also helped them identify certain diseases. In their culture the priests were the physicians and healed people by using medicines, splinting fractures, and drained blood with leeches in order to restore blood circulation. -
1900 BCE
Ancient Chinese
The Chinese were the first to start the acupuncture methods. They learned how to treat diseases and injuries with their stone tools. -
900 BCE
Ancient Greeks
The ancient Greeks believed that disease and illness were determined to be natural, rather than spiritual, causes. During ancient times they did not allow for bodies to dissected. Hippocrates payed careful attention to the details on the outside of the human body and that helped him prove that diseases and illnesses were not spiritual. -
100
Ancient Romans
The ancient Romans sent medical equipment and physicians with their armies because they knew that disease was caused by lack of sanitation. The physicians kept a room in their houses for the ill and then later on public buildings for the sick were established. The physicians believed that they would not get sick if they wore masks with spice filled beaks. -
Period: 400 to 800
Dark Age
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500
Stopped the Study of Medicine?
After the Huns conquered Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Church believed that life and death were in God’s hands and the priests had no interest in that so they resulted to prayer as the primary healing technique. -
700
How Was Disease Treated?
They would pray, use herbal mixtures, or they would just watch and protect the ill instead of searching for cures. -
Period: 800 to 1400
Middle Age
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1100
Epidemics
Terrible epidemics, like the bubonic plague, smallpox, diphtheria, syphilis, and tuberculosis, killed over 60 million people. Because of the sudden stop to medical studies, these people struggled. -
Period: 1350 to
Renaissance
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1450
Rebirth
The Renaissance period saw the rebirth of learning. Universities were built, the acceptance of dissection was developed, and the printing press contributed to the knowledge and research of many people. -
Period: 1501 to
16th and 17th Centuries
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1515
Leonado da Vinci
He studied and recorded the anatomy of the body. -
1550
Gabriele Fallopius
He discovered the Fallopian tubes in the female body. -
1563
Bartolommeo Eustachio
He discovered the Eustachian tube. -
William Harvey
He used Leonardo da Vinci’s model to describe the circulation of blood and how the heart pumps. -
Antonie von Leeuwenhoek
Invented the microscope and found what bacteria causes tooth decay. -
Apothecaries
Apothecaries are early pharmacies that supplied drugs, spices, and herbal medications. -
Period: to
18th Century
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Benjamin Franklin
His discoveries include bifocals, and he found that colds could be passed from person to person. -
Medical Students Learning
Students began to attend lectures in the classroom and they also observed patients at the bedside. -
Joseph Priestley
He discovered the element Oxygen and he observed that plants refresh air for respiration. -
Edward Jenner
He discovered a method of vaccination for smallpox, saving millions of lives. -
Rene Laennec
He invented the stethoscope, allowing doctors to hear the heart and lungs to determine if diseases were present. -
Period: to
19th and 20th Centuries
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Ignaz Semmelweis
He identified the cause of childbed fever and proved that washing hands after surgeries was effective and saved lives. -
Florence Nightingale
She found better ways to clean hospitals, reformed the British military healthcare system, and helping nursing gain respect. -
Louis Pasteur
He discovered microorganisms were everywhere and found that Pasteurization kills bacteria in milk. He also created a vaccine for Rabies. -
Dimitri Ivanovski
He discovered that viruses could not be seen with a microscope. -
Joesph Lister
He used carbolic acid and on wounds to kill germs that cause infection and also became the first doctor to use antiseptic during surgery. -
Ernst von Bergmann
He developed asepsis which was a method to keep an area germ-free before and during surgery. -
Robert Koch
He discovered many disease-causing elements, developed the culture plate method, isolated the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, and introduced the importance of of cleanliness and sanitation. -
Paul Ehrlich
He discovered a treatment to kill some microorganisms and brought the use of chemicals to fight off disease. -
Wilhelm Roentgen
He discovered x-rays, allowing doctors to see inside the body to find out what was wrong with the patient. -
Anesthesia
Early doctors used herbs, hashish, and alcohol to help relieve the pain of the surgery. They also would choke them to help them become unconscious. Later on they discovered nitrous acid, ether, and chloroform to be helpful drugs to put people into a deep sleep. -
Sir Alexander Fleming
He found that penicillin killed life-threatening bacteria. -
Sigmund Freud
He studied the effects of the unconscious mind on the body and determined that they work together. That led to the understanding of psychology and psychiatry. -
Gerhard Domagk
He discovered sulfonamide compounds that were effective in killing bacteria. -
Jonas Salk
He discovered that a dead polio virus caused immunity to poliomyelitis that saved many people’s lives. -
Albert Sabin
He used a live polio vaccine instead of a dead one to immunize people since it was much more effective. -
Francis Crick and James Watson
They discovered the molecular structure of DNA. Their model explained how DNA replicates and how hereditary information is coded on it. -
Christian Barnard
He performed the first successful heart transplant. -
Ben Carson
He has successfully separated Siamese twins, performed hemispherectomies, and surgeries on the brain to stop seizures. -
Period: to
21st Century
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Electronic Health Records
These are electronic versions of the patient’s medical history, that makes it easy to include all of the key clinical information relevant to the patient’s care. -
Diabetes: Medications and monitoring
Patients are able to connect with their providers thanks to improved glucose monitoring technologies. -
Telemedicine
This program allows for patients to conduct visits with their doctors very easily. These new tools speed up access to care while protecting healthcare workers and community members. -
Neurology: Seeing Decisions Being Made in the Brain
Doctors can see neural activity across the whole of the cerebral cortex of a mouse brain. They have been studying this by filming the brain from 3 different angles. -
Alzheimer’s Medication
The first drug, called Aducanumab, that attacks the dementia cells in the brain and reduces the effects of dementia.