Over the years technology has become a big role in our lives, especially in the medical field. Medical Technology can be considered as any technological device used to save the lives of individuals suffering from any type of disease and/or condition. The advancements made in the medical field, because of technology, has saved the lives of many people. It has allowed mistakes to decline and improve the care that patients receive. Not only does it help better the people’s life, it also funds billions of dollars to the economy. Studies have shown how today's recent tools have advanced more in the last twenty years than in the past thousand years. Any new medical study is based on technology. It allows scientists to find better cures and more diagnostics.
Medical technology dates back to the early days in history, medicine has been advancing and enhancing as doctors keep on searching out better approaches for improving patients' lives. Medical innovation has been traced back to the period of the ancient Egyptians, who led research to analyze and treat many illnesses. (Stomp 2010)
During the 1800’s machines began to take part in the practice of medicine. Before doctors would rely on tools such as scalpels, probes and Materia medica. In time new instruments would be invented in which doctors should study, diagnose and treat the patients better. (Bakalar2012)
Technology in this era is being used all over the world. Today the practice of medicine depends greatly on technology, and as a results people in the healthcare profession have found ways to improve their practice with brilliant innovations to improve things like diagnosis, surgical procedures, and also improving the patients care. From the small innovations such as ankle braces and bandages to the more advanced and complex technologies such as MRI machines, electronic aspirin, needle-free diabetes care, robotic check-ups, etc., have made such a big difference in the practice of medicine. Medicinal innovation is further developed, more successful, and most of the time costlier. (Bakalar2012)
These innovations have been occurring for a long period of time in history. It all began in 1250 when Roger Bacon constructed the first magnifying glass. The first time it was constructed it was created for the purposes of science. By the year 1280, similar lenses had been created for the purpose of correcting the sight in order to be able to see far away and so that they can be used in surgery as well. In the year 1752, eyeglasses had been invented for correcting myopia, as well as the flexible catheter had been invented by Benjamin Franklin for his brother who had been suffering from bladder stones. (Bakalar 2012)
The discovery of vaccines was very complex, and it began with Edward Jenner in the year 1796 when he started to use inoculations in order to control the smallpox virus that had been occurring at the time. It was during this time in which the vaccine became popular. Through the 1800’s and 1900’s many vaccines had been created in order to fight the many deadly diseases that had been happening at the time. During the next 200 years, the smallpox, which was one of the deadliest illnesses, was no longer a concern. (Ellis 2017)
The next innovation occurred on December 31, 1815 when Rene Laennec, a French physician, invented a trumpet-shaped wooden tube so that he could examine the heart of a fat women due to the fact that he could not hear her heart by pressing his ear to her chest. This invention was called the Stethoscope. In the spam of 26 years, Dr. Crawford W. Long had performed an operation in which he pressed a soaked towel against the patients face so that he could put him to sleep. During this time, he was able to remove one of the two tumors he had in his neck. It was the first operation in which he used diethyl as an anesthetic. This procedure today is called anesthesia. (Ellis 2017)
Louis Pasteur, microbiologist, did an experiment in which he wanted to prove that an infectious disease occurs when a pathogen is planted into a living host. This was labeled as the germ theory. This discovery made an important change in the way of how diseases would be treated and prevented. Before it was discovered people believed that it was caused by “spontaneous generation”, basically they thought the disease could appear out of nowhere. (Ellis 2017)
By 1895, the way doctors would diagnose and treat diseases would change. In this year, German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen discovered a machine would could show the inside of the body without having to do any surgery. This was called an X-ray machine, and till this day is a very useful and powerful tool. However, like any machine it had its consequences and risks. Many patients and radiologist, due to exposure, had passed away. (Ellis 2017)
During the 20th century, technology in the medical field changed. Many advances occurred in the fields of science, engineering, and manufacturing had been applied to fix medical problems. This began a time in which technology was used to invent devices that would assist the body including hearing aids, ventilators, pacemakers and other machines that would be used for the purpose of supporting, enhancing or replacing the body’s organs. (Bakalar 2012)
The first antibiotic, penicillin, had been created by Alexander Fleming and it helped prevent deadly bacteria. This antibiotic had been accidentally discovered in 1928, however it was not until the 1940’s that his findings were properly recognized when it was mass-produced for drug companies in America during World War II. Alexander Fleming is credited for having found penicillin, however 2 other scientists by the names of Howard Florey and Ernst Chain are known for distributing the penicillin. (Ellis 2017)
Dr. Willem Einthoven of the Netherlands, who received the Nobel prize in physiology for his innovation in 1924, created the principal electrocardiogram. The first one weighed 600 pounds, had a water cooling system for its massive electromagnets and required five administrators. A Swedish internist, Dr. Hans Christian Jacobaeus, performed a surgical produce on a human known as the laparoscopy. Using cocaine as a local anesthetic during this performance, he punctured the stomach walls of 17 patients, and removed fluid from them. Once he had completed the removal of the fluid he then analyzed the cavities with the cystoscopy. (Bakalar 2012)
14 years later, Dr. Hans Berger, recorded the first human electroencephalogram, also known as EEG. 5 years passed until Dr. Berger decided to publish his way for recording the electrical activity occurring in the human brain form the surface of the head. His goal of recording the impulses of the brain had been met. Although the operation was considered useless at the time because he was not a trained surgeon, Antonio Egas Moniz was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1948. He was the first to have performed a lobotomy, which is no longer practiced. This surgery allowed the brain's frontal cortex to treat delusional or violent patients. (Bakalar 2012)
A Dutch Physician by the name of Willem J. Kolff invented the first dialysis machine. The first few tries didn’t work, it wasn't until the 1950’s while working at Cleveland Clinic that his invention was finally a success. The inventor of the disposable catheter was David S. Sheridan. He designed a hollow plastic tube in 1944 so that it could be used once and then disposed. (Bakalar 2012)
Claude Beck, cardiovascular surgeon, was able to arrest the fibrillation of the heart muscle by applying electric shock across the chest of a 14-year-old boy while in cardiac surgery. After the surgery he was able to successfully bring him back to life, this is considered the first successful clinical application. (Riches 2016)
By the 1950’s the practice of medical began to change, doctor worked on creating invention in which they could replace organs such as the heart, lungs, kidney, etc… It all began in 1952 when Henry Opitek had an operation in which an artificial heart was used to replace his actual heart. This operation was performed by Dr. Forest D. Dodrill and it was considered the first mechanical heart. The surgery was a success and the patient was able to live another 29 years. (Ellis 2017)
During an open-heart surgery, Dr. John H. Gibbon and for the first time he was able to use his new invention in which he would support the patient's’ heart and lung functions for about half an hour. This invention was called the heart-lung bypass. Despite having failed many attempts in the past, in December of 1954 Dr. Joseph Murray and Dr. David Hume were able to perform the first successful kidney transplant. During this surgery many technical difficulties were overcome. After this many organ transplants were made possible. Although the first human liver transplant was not a success it occurred in 1963 and was performed by Dr. Thomas E. Starzl. That same year the first lung transplant was performed followed by the first human heart transplant in 1967 which resulted in the patient dying only 18 days after. (Riches 2016)
Ultrasounds had been known for more than a century, however in 1958 it was the first time being used for parental care. It occurred when Dr. Edward Hon said to have used Christian Andreas Doppler’s monitor in order to detect the heartbeat of a fetal. In 1965 Walter E. Krause used the first practical commercial ultrasound machine on a patient so that it could be “used for practical ultrasonic-optical examinations to achieve a lifelike reproduction of the body part under examination." (Bakalar 2012)
That same year, weighing 150 pounds and being powered by car batteries, Dr. Frank Pantridge placed the first portable defibrillator in an ambulance. The X-Ray subsequently led to the invention of the CT scanner in 1971. Its commercial version was invented by Dr. Godfrey Hounsfield who received a Nobel Prize for medicine. This device was able to display multiple layers within multiple X-ray images. PET scan, also known as positron emission tomography, was first built for the purpose of human studies by Edward Hoffman, Michael M. Ter-Pogossian and Michael E. Phelps in 1973. The first whole-body PET scanner appeared in 1977. Soon after in 1978, Dr. Raymond V. Damadian invented a technique to differentiate between cancerous and normal cells using nuclear magnetic resonance which later was improved and called MRI. (Bakalar 2012)
Starting in the 1980s Charles W’ Chuck Hull created a machine that could print three-dimensional figure. Also known as Stereolithography, it began to change the production of the way physical objects and parts are created. (Chaplan 2018)
The medicinal innovation of the 21st century has changed almost everything about how human services is given. From monitoring a patient's prescriptions and medicinal history to giving a fast analysis, innovation influences each part of healthcare services. (Wester 2018)
With scientist and physicians working on finding new cures and treatments, medical technology keeps advancing every day. Technology has greatly impacted the discoveries of cures and improvements in patient care. The future of medical findings is up to today's education and investments; how we use today's technology for better healthcare is up to us. (Green 2001)