Medicine is one of the most important industry for humanity, if not the most important and the development of it is really fast. There have been many diseases that were critical in the past and unfortunately ended many lives, but thanks to hard work of many scientists, doctors, and researchers, there have been numerous very important medical discoveries that made curing those critical diseases possible and some of them even become a piece of cake for the modern medicine.
Over the years, there has been some very important discoveries and innovations which changed the medicine forever, below are some of the most influential ones that saved a lot of lives and are still the core of medicine.
Still one of the core components of the medicine, vaccines first appeared in 1796 and it quickly becomes a very popular weapon against many diseases. The appearance of vaccines was the real deal in the 1800s as it allowed doctors to quickly and effectively combat a lot of deadly diseases including ones like smallpox virus, tuberculosis, cholera and rabies that were threatening the world for a long time.
Thanks to this discovery, one of the deadliest virus – smallpox were finally defeated and wiped out from the world.
Probably every family has their own medical thermometer in and out times, it is a very basic medical device that doesn’t look to be any special, but there were times when it made a huge impact. Unfortunately, it isn’t confirmed when the exactly the first medical thermometer was invented but Gabriel Fahrenheit invented the mercury thermometer in 1714 which is still widely used in the 21st century.
Medical thermometer allowed doctors to measure the temperature of the body easily and effectively, making it possible to detect issues in the body and effectively solve them. Before that, it was a real trouble to understand why a patient may feel weak and what could be the reason for different symptoms.
Can you imagine a hard, long, painful surgery going without an anesthesia? Nowadays it is unimaginable, but unfortunately, before 1846, it was a real thing. A medical surgery was a real hell for everyone and it was last, the worst decision after everything else. People hated surgeries and many patients agreed to die to avoid surgery as it was long, very painful, hell like experience that you can’t forget for the whole life. Of course, it was also very hard and unpleasant experience for doctors too, it is really hard to concentrate on such hard job when a lot of things is going around, including painful voices of patients.
Fortunately, in 1846 anesthesia started to appear and become a popular way to easily run surgeries. It allowed doctors to better do their jobs, it took a lot of pain, trouble, and fear away from patients and it allowed longer, more complex surgeries to take place. The appearance of anesthesia made surgeries a normal choice and saved a lot of lives.
Medical imagining and X-ray scans
Next one in our list is another game changer piece of technology that managed to take medicine to whole new levels and made it way faster, effective and easier. In 1846, the first ever X-ray scanner was created and the world’s first radiology department was opened, making a huge impact on how medicine was developed.
X-ray scanners allowed doctors to see through the human body and see many issues in the body that was very hard to detect without X-rays. This new technology was real game changer and it opened ways for similar discoveries.
The popularity of X-ray scanners leads to the creation of Ultrasound scanners which was another big improvement in medicine, allowing doctors to see more details in the body and discover more diseases that were bothering people. Ultrasound scanners use high-frequency sound waves to create a digital image of the body or body parts, this technology is effective to see things what normal X-ray scanners can’t detect.
In 1954 medicine industry made another huge jump when first surgery was successful which transplanted a kidney. It was not the first try but it was only and first successful try which made it clear that it was actually possible to transplant organs. It quickly becomes the center of attention and leads to implantation of many organs, making the process available in most countries and that discoveries saved many lives.
Fortunately, many important medical discoveries made it possible to cure most of the deadly diseases that were incurable in the past, modern medicine is capable of nearly everything but it is still evolving and going further!