Timeline of medicine and medical technology  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Related e

Wikipedia Wiktionary Shop Featured: Rhombicuboctahedron by Leonardo da Vinci

Timeline of the history of medicine and medical technology.

Antiquity

• 2600 BC – Imhotep wrote texts on ancient Egyptian medicine describing diagnosis and treatment of 200 diseases in 3rd dynasty Egypt.
• 1500 BC – Saffron used as a medicine on the Aegean island of Thera in ancient Greece
• 500 BC – Bian Que becomes the earliest physician known to use acupuncture and pulse diagnosis
• 420 BC – Hippocrates of Cos maintains that diseases have natural causes and puts forth the Hippocratic Oath, marking the birth of medicine in the west
• 280 BC – Herophilus studies the nervous system and distinguishes between sensory nerves and motor nerves
• 250 BC – Erasistratus studies the brain and distinguishes between the cerebrum and cerebellum
• 200 BC – the Charaka Samhita uses a rational approach to the causes and cure of disease and uses objective methods of clinical examination
• c. 400 BC - 1 BC – The Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine) is published, laying the framework for traditional Chinese medicine
• 50–70 – Pedanius Dioscorides writes De Materia Medica – a precursor of modern pharmacopeias that was in use for almost 1600 years
• 180 – Galen studies the connection between paralysis and severance of the spinal cord
• 220 – Zhang Zhongjing publishes Shang Han Lun (On Cold Disease Damage), the oldest medical textbook in the world
• 270 – Huangfu Mi writes the Zhenjiu Jiayijing (The ABC Compendium of Acupuncture), the first textbook focusing solely on acupuncture
• 400 – the Sushruta Samhita is published, laying the framework for Ayurvedic medicine

Middle Ages

• c. 800–873 – Al-Kindi (Alkindus) introduces quantification into aasdxa with his De Gradibus
• c. 830–870 – Hunayn ibn Ishaq translates Galen's works into Arabic
• c. 838–870 – Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari, a pioneer in the field of child development, writes the first encyclopedia of medicine in Arabic.
• c. 865–925 – Rhazes pioneers pediatrics, and makes the first clear distinction between smallpox and measles in his al-Hawi.
• 1000 – Abulcasis establishes surgery as a profession of in his Kitab al-Tasrif, which remains a standard textbook in Muslim and European universities until the 16th century. The book described the plaster cast, inhalant anesthesia, and many surgical instruments.
• 1021 – Alhazen completes his Book of Optics, which made important advances in ophthalmology and eye surgery, as it correctly explained the process of visual perception.
• c. 1030 – Avicenna writes The Book of Healing and The Canon of Medicine, in which he establishes experimental medicine and evidence-based medicine. The Canon remains a standard textbook in Muslim and European universities until the 18th century. The book's contributions to medicine includes the introduction of clinical trials, the discovery of contagious diseases, the distinction of mediastinitis from pleurisy, the contagious nature of phthisis, the distribution of diseases by water and soil, and the first careful descriptions of skin troubles, sexually transmitted diseases, perversions, and nervous ailments, as well the use of ice to treat fevers, and the separation of medicine from pharmacology
• 1100–1161 – Avenzoar carries out human dissections and postmortem autopsy, and proves that the skin disease scabies is caused by a parasite, which contradicted the erroneous theory of humorism. He was also the first to provide a real scientific etiology for the inflammatory diseases of the ear, and the first to clearly discuss the causes of stridor. Modern anesthesia was also developed in al-Andalus by the Muslim anesthesiologists Ibn Zuhr and Abulcasis. They utilized oral as well as inhalant anesthetics, and they performed hundreds of surgeries under inhalant anesthesia with the use of narcotic-soaked sponges which were placed over the face.
• 1242 – Ibn an-Nafis suggests that the right and left ventricles of the heart are separate and discovers the pulmonary circulation (the cycle involving the ventricles of the heart and the lungs) and coronary circulation, and one of the greatest physiologists of the Middle Ages. He emphasized the rigours of verification by measurement, observation and experiment, and was an early proponent of experimental medicine, postmortem autopsy, and human dissection. He also discredited many other erroneous Avicennian and Galenic doctrines on the four humours, pulse bones, muscles, intestines, sensory organs, bilious canals, esophagus, stomach, and the anatomy of other parts of the human body. Ibn al-Nafis also drew diagrams to illustrate different body parts in his new physiological system.
• c. 1248 – Ibn al-Baitar wrote on botany and pharmacy, studied animal anatomy and medicine, and was a pioneer of veterinary medicine.
• 1249 – Roger Bacon writes about convex lens spectacles for treating long-sightedness
• 1403 – concave lens spectacles to treat myopia
• early 16th century: Paracelsus, an alchemist by trade, rejects occultism and pioneers the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine

1500–1800

• 1543 – Andreas Vesalius publishes De Fabrica Corporis Humani which corrects Greek medical errors and revolutionizes European medicine
• 1546 – Girolamo Fracastoro proposes that epidemic diseases are caused by transferable seedlike entities
• 1553 – Miguel Serveto describes the circulation of blood through the lungs. He is accused of heresy and burned at the stake
• 1556 – Amato Lusitano describes venous valves in the Ázigos vein
• 1559 – Realdo Colombo describes the circulation of blood through the lungs in detail
• 1563 – Garcia de Orta founds tropical medicine with his treatise on Indian diseases and treatments
• 1596 – Li Shizhen publishes Běncǎo Gāngmù or Compendium of Materia Medica
• 1603 – Girolamo Fabrici studies leg veins and notices that they have valves which allow blood to flow only toward the heart
• 1628 – William Harvey explains the circulatory system in Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus
• 1701 – Giacomo Pylarini gives the first smallpox innoculations in Europe. They were widely practised in the east before then.
• 1736 – Claudius Aymand performs the first successful appendectomy
• 1747 – James Lind discovers that citrus fruits prevent scurvy
• 1774 – Joseph Priestley discovers nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, ammonia, hydrogen chloride and oxygen
• 1785 – William Withering publishes "An Account of the Foxglove" the first systematic description of digitalis in treating dropsy
• 1790 – Samuel Hahnemann rages against the prevalent practice of bloodletting as a universal cure and founds homeopathy
• 1796 – Edward Jenner develops a smallpox vaccination method
• 1799 – Humphry Davy discovers the anesthetic properties of nitrous oxide

1800–1899

• 1800 – Humphry Davy announces the anaesthetic properties of nitrous oxide
• 1816 – Rene Laennec invents the stethoscope
• 1818 – James Blundell performs the first successful human blood transfusion.
• 1842 – Crawford Long performs the first surgical operation using anaesthesia with ether
• 1846 - First painless surgery with general anaesthetic.
• 1847 – Ignaz Semmelweis discovers how to prevent puerperal fever
• 1849 – Elizabeth Blackwell is the first woman to gain a medical degree
• 1867 – Lister publishes Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery, based partly on Pasteur's work.
• 1870 – Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch establish the germ theory of disease
• 1879 – First vaccine for cholera
• 1881 – Louis Pasteur develops an anthrax vaccine
• 1882 – Louis Pasteur develops a rabies vaccine
• 1890 – Emil von Behring discovers antitoxins and uses them to develop tetanus and diphtheria vaccines
• 1895 – Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovers medical use of X-rays in medical imaging
• 1897 - Asprin is invented in Germany.

1900–1999

• 1901 – Karl Landsteiner discovers the existence of different human blood types
• 1901 – Alois Alzheimer identifies the first case of what becomes known as Alzheimer's disease
• 1903 - Willem Einthoven discovers electrocardiography (ECG/EKG)
• 1906 – Frederick Hopkins suggests the existence of vitamins and suggests that a lack of vitamins causes scurvy and rickets
• 1907 – Paul Ehrlich develops a chemotherapeutic cure for sleeping sickness
• 1908 – Victor Horsley and R. Clarke invents the stereotactic method
• 1909 – First Intrauterine device described by Richard Richter.
• 1910 - Hans Christian Jacobeus performs the first laparoscopy on humans
• 1917 – Julius Wagner-Jauregg discovers the malarial fever shock therapy for general paresis of the insane
• 1921 – Edward Mellanby discovers vitamin D and shows that its absence causes rickets
• 1921 – Frederick Banting and Charles Best discover insulin – important for the treatment of diabetes
• 1921 – Fidel Pagés pioneers epidural anesthesia
• 1923 – First vaccine for Diphtheria
• 1926 – First vaccine for Pertussis
• 1927 – First vaccine for Tuberculosis
• 1927 – First vaccine for Tetanus
• 1928 – Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
• 1929 – Hans Berger discovers human electroencephalography
• 1932 – Gerhard Domagk develops a chemotherapeutic cure for streptococcus
• 1933 – Manfred Sakel discovers insulin shock therapy
• 1935 – Ladislas J. Meduna discovers metrazol shock therapy
• 1935 – First vaccine for Yellow Fever
• 1936 – Egas Moniz discovers prefrontal lobotomy for treating mental diseases
• 1938 – Ugo Cerletti and Lucio Bini discover electroconvulsive therapy
• 1943 – Willem J Kolff build the first dialysis machine
• 1944 - Disposable Catheter - David Sheridan [18]
• 1946 - Chemotherapy - Alfred Gilman and Louis S Goodman [18]
• 1947 - Defibrillator - Claude Beck [18]
• 1948 - Acetaminophen - Julis Axelrod [18]
• 1949 – First implant of intraocular lens, by Sir Harold Ridley
• 1949 - Ventilator - Jone Emerson [18]
• 1952 – Jonas Salk develops the first polio vaccine
• 1952 - Cloning - Robert Briggs & Thomas King [18]
• 1953 - Heart-Lung Machine - Dr John Heysham Gibbon [18]
• 1953 - Medical Ultrasonography - Inge Edler [18]
• 1954 - Joseph Murray performs the first human kidney transplant (on identical twins)
• 1954 - Ventouse - Tage Malmstrom [18]
• 1955 - Tetracycline - Lloyd Conover [18]
• 1956 - Beta Blockers - Sir James Black [18]
• 1956 - Metered Dose Inhaler - 3M [18]
• 1956 - Synthetic Blood - Thomas Chan [18]
• 1957 – William Grey Walter invents the brain EEG topography (toposcope)
• 1959 - In Vitro Fertilization - Min Chueh Chang [18]
• 1960 – Invention of Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
• 1960 – First combined oral contraceptive approved by the FDA
• 1962 - Hip Replacement - John Charnley [18]
• 1962 – First Oral Polio Vaccine
• 1963 - Artificial Heart - Paul Winchell [18]
• 1963 - Thomas Starzl performs the first human liver transplant
• 1963 - James Hardy performs the first human lung transplant
• 1963 - Valium (diazepam) - Leo H Sternbach [18]
• 1964 – First vaccine for Measles
• 1965 – Frank Pantridge installs the first portable defibrillator
• 1965 - Rubella Vaccine - Harry Martin Meyer [18]
• 1965 – First commercial ultrasound
• 1966 - Richard Lillehei performs the first human pancreas transplant
• 1967 – First vaccine for Mumps
• 1967 – Christiaan Barnard performs the first human heart transplant
• 1968 - Powered Prothesis - Samuel Alderson [18]
• 1968 - Controlled Drug Delivery - Alejandro Zaffaroni [18]
• 1969 - Internet - Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) [18]
• 1969 - Balloon Catheter - Thomas Fogarty [18]
• 1969 - Cochlear Implant - William House [18]
• 1970 – First vaccine for Rubella
• 1970 - Cyclosporine, the first effective immunosuppressive drug is introduced in organ transplant practice
• 1971 - Genetically Modified Organisms - Ananda Chakrabart [18]
• 1971 - Magnetic Resonance Imaging - Raymond Vahan Damadian [18]
• 1971 - Computed Tomography (CT or CAT Scan) - Godfrey Hounsfield [18]
• 1971 - Transdermal Patches - Alejandro Zaffaroni [18]
• 1971 – Sir Godfrey Hounsfield invents the first commercial CT scanner
• 1972 - Insulin Pump - Dean Kamen [18]
• 1973 - Laser Eye Surgery - Mani Lai Bhaumik [18]
• 1974 - Liposuction - Giorgio Fischer [18]
• 1976 – First commercial PET scanner
• 1978 – Last fatal case of smallpox
• 1979 Antiviral Drugs - George Hitchings & Gertrude Elion [18]
• 1980 – Raymond Damadian builds first commercial MRI scanner
• 1980 - Lithotripter - Dornier Research Group [18]
• 1980 – First vaccine for Hepatitis B - Dr Baruch Blimberg [18]
• 1981 - Artificial Skin - John F Burke & Ioannis V Yannas [18]
• 1981 - Bruce Reitz performs the first human heart-lung combined transplant
• 1982 - Humulin insulin - Eli Lilly [18]
• Interferon Cloning - Dr Sidney Pestika [18]
• 1985 - Automated DNA Sequencer - Leroy Hood & Lloyd Smith [18]
• 1985 - Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) - Kaery Mullis [18]
• 1985 - Surgical Robot - Dr Yik San Kwoh [18]
• 1985 - DNA Fingerprinting - Alec Jeffreys [18]
• 1985 - Capsule Endoscopy - Tarun Mullick [18]
• 1986 - Fluoxetine HCl - Eli Lilly and Co [18]
• 1987 – Ben Carson, leading a 70-member medical team in Germany, was the first to separate occipital craniopagus twins.
• 1987 - Statins - Merck & Co. [18]
• 1987 - Tissue Engineering - Joseph Vacanti & Robert Langer [18]
• 1988 - Intravascular Stent - Julio Palmaz [18]
• 1988 - Laser Cataract Surgery - Dr Patricia Bath [18]
• 1989 - Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) - Alan Handyside [18]
• 1989 - DNA Microarray - Stephen Fodor [18]
• 1989 - World Wide Web WWW - Tim Berners-Lee [18]
• 1990 - Gamow Bag ® - Dr Igor Gamow [18]
• 1992 – First vaccine for Hepatitis A available
• 1992 - Electroactive Polymer (Artificial Muscle) - SRI International [18]
• 1992 - Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) - Andre van Steirteghem [18]
• 1998 - Stem Cell Therapy - James Thomson [18]

2000 – present

• 26 June 2000 - Human Genome draft completed
• 2001 Telesurgery - Jacques Marescaux [18]
• 2001 Artificial Liver - Kenneth Matsumura [18]
• 2001 Self-Healing Materials Scott White [18]
• 2002 Chitosan Bandages by HemCon [18]
• 2003 – Carlo Urbani, of Doctors without Borders alerted the World Health Organization to the threat of the SARS virus, triggering the most effective response to an epidemic in history. Urbani succumbs to the disease himself in less than a month.
• 2005 – Jean-Michel Dubernard performs the first partial face transplant
• 2006 – First HPV vaccine approved
• 2006 – Second rotavirus vaccine approved (first was withdrawn)
• 2007 - Visual Prosthetic (bionic eye)Argus II [18]
• 2008 – Laurent Lantieri performs the first full face transplant

See also

• Timeline of antibiotics
• Timeline of vaccines

Footnote

1. The dates given for these medical works are uncertain. A Tribute to Hinduism suggests that Sushruta lived in the 5th century BC.