Question

Select a specific medical technology from the following list of historical periods. Describe the fundamental principles of operation and discuss their impact on health care delivery: (a) 1900-1939; (b) 1945-1970; (c) 1970-1980; (d) 1980-2003.

Answer 1

1901   Austrian-American Karl Landsteiner describes blood compatibility and rejection (i.e., what happens when a person receives a blood transfusion from another human of either compatible or incompatible blood type), developing the ABO system of blood typing. This system classifies the bloods of human beings into A, B, AB, and O groups. Landsteiner receives the 1930 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for this discovery.

1906   Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins suggests the existence of vitamins and concludes they are essential to health. Receives the 1929 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

1907   First successful human blood transfusion using Landsteiner's ABO blood typing technique

1913   Dr. Paul Dudley White becomes one of America's first cardiologists, a doctor specializing in the heart and its functions, and a pioneer in use of the electrocardiograph, exploring its potential as a diagnostic tool.

1921   Edward Mellanby discovers vitamin D and shows that its absence causes rickets.

1922   Insulin first used to treat diabetes.

1923   First vaccine for diphtheria.

1926   First vaccine for pertussis (whooping cough).

1927   First vaccine for tuberculosis.

1927   First vaccine for tetanus.

1928   Scottish bacteriologist Sir Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin. He shares the 1945 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Ernst Chain and Sir Howard Florey.

1945   First vaccine for influenza.

1952   Paul Zoll develops the first cardiac pacemaker to control irregular heartbeat.

1953   James Watson and Francis Crick at Cambridge University describe the structure of the DNA molecule. Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin at King's College in London are also studying DNA. (Wilkins in fact shares Franklin's data with Watson and Crick without her knowledge.) Watson, Crick, and Wilkins share the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1962 (Franklin had died and the Nobel Prize only goes to living recipients).

1954   Dr. Joseph E. Murray performs the first kidney transplant between identical twins.

1955   Jonas Salk develops the first polio.

1957   Dr. Willem Kolff and Dr. Tetsuzo Akutzu implant the first artificial heart in a dog. The animal survives 90 minutes.

1962   First oral polio vaccine (as an alternative to the injected vaccine).

1964   Firstvaccine for measles.

1967   First vaccine for mumps.

1967   South African heart surgeon Dr. Christiaan Barnard performs the first human heart transplant.

1970   First vaccine for rubella.

1974   First vaccine for chicken pox.

1977   First vaccine for pneumonia.

1978   First test-tube baby is born in the U.K.

1978   First vaccine for meningitis.

1980   W.H.O. (World Health Organization) announces smallpox is eradicated.

1981   First vaccine for hepatitis B.
1982   Dr. William DeVries implants the Jarvik-7 artificial heart into patient Barney Clark. Clark lives 112 days.
1983   HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is identified.
1992   First vaccine for hepatitis A.
1996   Dolly the sheep becomes the first mammal cloned from an adult cell (dies in 2003).
1998   First vaccine for lyme disease.
2000   First draft of human genome is announced; the finalized version is released three years later.