Humans have looked for ways to cure illness and heal injuries for thousands of years. The primitive human society used to pray gods or hope for a better future by praying to ancestors. But in this modern era medication and healthcare system improved. Gradually more effective treatments were being developed.
Now let us revisit some of the major developments in the field of human medication.
Early civilization in Africa and the America used to cure a range of human illness by making holes in a person’s skull. They used to think that when evil spirits enter human body, they cause our body to fall ill, the illness range from epilepsy to blindness. This involves drilling a hole in persons skull to release the bad spirits that in the process will cure the human body.
The healing practice of acupuncture is a healing was introduced in ancient China and soon spread to whole southeast and south Asia. Fine needles are inserted under specific points to relive pain to cure illness.
Ayurveda is a system of medicine which was purely based on cure of nature and the divine healing factors of of nature. Charaka Sushruta vagabata and Patanjali are the most revered and one of the greatest personality of ayurvedic knowledge.
Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates was the one who discovered that the illness was not caused by gods rather than various reasons and have a natura causes and have a set of process by which we can cure an illness. Even today all doctors and medical professionals take up a vow of integrity called as Hippocrates oath.
In 250 BC Greek doctors Erasistratus and Herophilus opened a research facility in ancient city of Alexandria. They made important discoveries about the interior structure of the human body. They used to dissect live criminal to find more about human heart and brain.
During the epitome of roman glory, a roman noble woman named Fabiola started the first public healthcare system in Rome and eastern Europe.
Indian surgeon, named Sushruta is credited as the first surgeon who performed extracapsular cataract extraction from a patients eye.
Persian philosopher Avicenna publishes his Canon of medicine the first encyclopedia of medicine used by doctors for the next 500 years and was translated into many languages.
Ibn An Nafis of Damascus was to first one to describe blood circulation (pulmonary circulation) of heart and also defined that blood crossed from one heart chamber to the other.
Dutch spectacle maker Zacharias Jansen invented the first microscope a magnifying device used in medical research and have changed the field of medicinal breakthrough.
English doctor William Harvey discovered that blood flows in interconnected path ways and in a circulatory system and it is the heart that pumps the blood.
English researcher Robert Hooke publishes a book called as Micrographia which contains drawings of various organisms which contains a detailed drawings of various organisms that he has observed under a primitive and improvised microscope. He coined the term cell for the smallest unit of life he finds.
French born English surgeon Claudius Amyand removes the inflamed and blotted appendix of a young patient known as Hanvil Anderson, this surgery is known as first successful surgery.
During the smallpox pandemic in London English doctor invented the first vaccine and vaccination against the disease of smallpox. He injects the boy with pus from a cow’s blister, and the boy becomes immune to smallpox.
Stethoscope is termed and undoubtedly the greatest and most commonly used medical instrument of all time. A French doctor Rene Lannec is termed as the inventor of first inventor of stethoscope. He invented the stethoscope as a simple wooden tube which has evolved to what we see.
British born Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman to qualify as the first woman doctor both in UK & USA. She started her practice in London and New York city.
Frenc scientist Louis Pasteur proves that infectious diseases can also spread through the air by bacteria and other microorganisms.
English surgeon Joseph Lister is known as the modern father of surgery, he was the first one who applies carbolic acid on a wound of a young boy. These antiseptic liquid clears the puss of the wound and kills the germs and other microorganisms and prevent the other infections.
German physicist Wilhelm Rontegen invents the X-ray machine and first captured the hand of his wife which he used to image the skeletal system of his wife. Today X-ray is one the pioneering invention in medical field
In 1901 Austrian biologist Karl Landsteiner discovers different types of blood groups based on characteristics and pigmentation and he named them as blood group A,B,AB and O this became the general way to differentiate blood from other blood groups later it was used to transfuse in to another patients body.
Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming unintentionally grows a mould that kills bacteria he names this as Penicillin, the world’s first antibiotic that is still saving millions of lives worldwide.
German scientist Ernast Ruska and Max Koll invents the first electron microscope this improved microscope produces more optically clearer images than an optical microscope.
American inventor John Heysham Gibbon invents the first surgical pump also known as heart lung machine to act as a heart or a lung during a open heart surgery.
James Watson, Francis Crick and Rosalind Franklin show that DNA the chemical molecule that shows the pattern of growth and helps to determine how development of a human growth will occur. They showed that structure is more like a spiral staircase which is made up of proteins and chemical. This structure is known as a double helix.
American surgeon Joseph Murray performs the first successful human kidney transplant on a human. The first recipient is Richard Herrick who lives for another 8 years.
American virologist Jonas Salk invented the cure for polio that mainly affects small and tender children he invents a vaccine that is a boon for mankind and saves many children.
South African surgeon Chriswtian Barnard carries out the first heart transplant. A 56 years old receives the heart from a woman who lost her life due to car accident.
Armenian inventor Raymond Damadian invents and patents the first MRI scanner that scans the body to produces the medical images.
UN’s organisations WHO declare that smallpox is the first globally wiped out illness due to the fact that a global vaccination regime.
Researcher Rangaswamy Srinivasan, Samuel Blum and James Wayne uses laser technology to cut biological tissue which becomes the fundamental for laser eye surgery.
Dolly the sheep is the first mammal ever to be cloned, grown in a laboratory from a single stem cell, this technology holds immense potential to use in various fields of curing human illness.
Scientists announces that we now have a electronic map of humans DNA which will in turn help us to cure many illnesses that is inherited.
Da Vinci and Mc sleepy becomes the first automated robot to perform the first all robotic surgery.
Many Japanese scientist grows a tiny liver from a stem cell which could end the shortage of donor organs and can save millions of lives in the near future.
Scientists made big advancement towards CRISPR a biological system to change and alter a person s DNA.
In Ohio state university researchers led by Dr. Chandan Sen announced that the development of tissue nanotransfection or better known as TNT technology which will help to recreate and reprogram any human organ they also announced that they could generate any kind of cell by technology.
In 2019 doctor and scientist announced the use of 3d printing in medical field. The versatility of 3d printing technology will help to provide the patients the most advanced care while simultaneously minimizing the cost.
PRESENT SCENARIO OF MEDICAL ADVANCEMENTS
AI or also known as artificial intelligence is being used by medical infrastructure around the world. Also Musk’s company NEURALINK is advancing towards developing a brain computer interface which will be a giant leap for neuroprosthetics.
New generations of doctors and researchers are building and reaching many milestone, today we know about our body more that before yet there is more to do in field of medical sciences. We should never stop learning about our complex machine that keeps us all alive.