-
600 BCE
First Plastic Surgeon
Sushruta Samhita which is one of the oldest treatise dealing with surgery in the world indicates that he was probably the first surgeon to perform plastic surgical operations. -
Period: 500 to Dec 31, 1300
Middle ages
-
900
Greek Medical Books
The eastern half of the Roman Empire continued (we know it as The Byzantine Empire) and later Muslims took their knowledge of medicine from there. A man named Hunain Ibn Ishaq traveled to Greece collecting Greek books. He then returned to Baghdad and translated them into Arabic. Later the same works were translated into Latin and passed back to western Europe. -
1140
Roger of Sicily
Roger of Sicily forbade anyone from practicing medicine without a license, indicating that doctors were clearly under some form of regulation. In the late Middle Ages, apothecary shops opened in important towns. Interestingly, these shops also sold artists’ paints and supplies, and apothecaries and artists shared a guild—the Guild of Saint Luke. -
1200
Medical schools
By the twelfth century, there were medical schools throughout Europe. The most famous was the school of Salerno in southern Italy, reputedly founded by a Christian, an Arab, and a Jew. A health spa as early as the second century, Salerno was surprisingly free of clerical control, even though it was very close to the famous and very powerful monastery of Monte Cassino. The medical faculty at Salerno permitted women to study there. -
1230
Manuscript giving instructions for doctors
During very hot weather phlebotomy (blood-letting) should not be undertaken because humours flow out quickly as the bad. Nor should phlebotomy be done in very cold weather, because the good humours are compacted in the body and difficult to draw out, and the good came out quicker than the bad... If the blood appears black, draw it off until it becomes red. If it is thick, until it thins out: if watery, until it becomes thick... -
Period: Jan 1, 1301 to
Renaissance starts
-
1347
The Black Plague
The Black Death, also known as the Great Plague or the Plague, or less commonly the Black Plague, was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia. Fleas, rats and bad hygiene is what spread it. -
1380
Guy de Chauliac
Guigo de Cauliaco, was a French physician and surgeon who wrote a lengthy and influential treatise on surgery in Latin. He figured the knowledge of anatomy is acquired in two ways; one is by books... the second way is by dissecting dead bodies, namely, of those who have been recently beheaded or hanged. By this means we learn the anatomy of the internal organs, the muscles, skin, veins and sinews. -
1400
Mental illness
When patients were suffering through erratic behavior they blamed it on demons or the devil causing them ti act this way. This is why they thought prayer was a good way to help heal someone. -
1517
Trepanning
In ancient times, holes were drilled into a person who was behaving in what was considered an abnormal way to let out what people believed were evil spirits.Evidence of trepanation has been found in prehistoric human remains from Neolithic times onward. The bone that was trepanned was kept by the prehistoric people and may have been worn as a charm to keep evil spirits away. -
bow-frame amputation
Bow-frame amputation was a very painful way to remove rotting limbs of wounded patients. Sometimes the saw would get snagged by the bone which probably wasn't very enjoyable. -
Period: to
Industerial Revolution
-
Edward Jenner
Smallpox vaccine, the first successful vaccine to be developed, was introduced by Edward Jenner. He followed up his observation that milkmaids who had previously caught cowpox did not later catch smallpox by showing that inoculated cowpox protected against inoculated smallpox. -
Antiseptic
Lister experimented with an idea. Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge discovered phenol, also known as carbolic acid, which he derived in an impure form from coal tar. -
Semmelweis
Semmelweis demonstrated that puerperal fever (also known as childbed fever) was contagious and that this incidence could drastically be reduced by appropriate hand washing by medical care-givers. He made this discovery while working in the Maternity Department of the Vienna Lying-in Hospital. -
Louis Pasteur
It was the laboratory researches of Louis Pasteur and then Robert Koch in the following decades that provided the scientific proof for germ theory. Their work opened the door to research into the identification of disease-causing germs and potential life-saving treatments. -
Radioactive Decay.
Radioactivity is the spontaneous disintegration of atomic nuclei. This phenomenon was first reported by the French physicist Henri Becquerel. -
San Francisco plague
The San Francisco plague of 1900–1904 was an epidemic of bubonic plague centered on San Francisco's Chinatown. It was the first plague epidemic in the continental United States. -
Period: to
Modern world
-
penicillin
The first true antibiotic. Discovered by Alexander Fleming, Professor of Bacteriology at St. Mary's Hospital in London. -
Discovery of Polio Vaccine
he inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) was available first, given as a shot in 1955. A more convenient form, given as liquid drops via the mouth, was developed in 1961. This oral polio vaccine (OPV) was recommended for use in the United States for almost 40 years, from 1963 until 2000. -
Smallpox eradication
It was one of the world's most devastating diseases known to humanity. The last known natural case was in Somalia in 1977. It was declared eradicated. Following a global immunization campaign led by the World Health Organization. -
AZT (HIV antiviral)
It can treat HIV infection, which causes AIDS. It can also be used during childbirth to keep the mother from passing HIV to her baby. This medication does not cure HIV or AIDS, but may slow the progress of the disease and prolong life. -
Period: to
21st century
-
Steve Thomas and sterile maggots
Maggots secrete a powerful mixture of proteolytic enzymes that break down slough and necrotic tissue into a semi-liquid form that they can ingest. During this process, the actively feeding maggots also take up and destroy bacteria, and thus help to prevent or combat wound infections,12–16 including those caused by antibiotic-resistant organisms such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).17,18 -
Gardasil
Gardasil is a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. Gardasil is a sterile preparation for intramuscular injection and contains purified inactive proteins from HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18. The proteins in Gardasil are structural, virus-like proteins (VLP) that resemble the HPV virus. -
MIPPA
MIPPA is a multi-faceted piece of legislation containing several important provisions that directly changed the Medicare program (detailed below) and allocated federal funding (through Section 119) for State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIPs), Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs), and Aging and Disability Resource ... -
AbioCor
AbioCor was a total artificial heart (TAH) developed by the Massachusetts-based company AbioMed. It was fully implantable within a patient, due to a combination of advances in miniaturization, biosensors, plastics and energy transfer. The AbioCor ran on a rechargeable source of power. -
Stem Cells
Harvard Medical School have discovered how to regenerate the function of human heart tissue through adult skin cells. Through stem cells, humans can grow another organ. This is associated with the regenerative nature of living organisms. Recently, various research all around the world enables growing fallopian tubes, heart, brain, lung, and kidney, among others through stem cells.
