The evolution of medical care: from the beginnings to personalized medicine

Excerpt

The practice of medical care is as old as the first recordings in human history, conceiving the human body and disease in a holistic manner. Early medical traditions include those of ancient Egypt and Babylon. The Greeks went even further, introducing the concepts of medical diagnosis, prognosis, and advanced medical ethics. Around 800 BCE Homer in The Iliad gives descriptions of wound treatment by the two sons of Asklepios, the admirable physicians Podaleirius and Machaon and one acting doctor, Patroclus. The Hippocratic Oath, still taken by doctors up to today, was written in Greece in the fifth century BCE. In the medieval age, surgical practices inherited from the ancient masters were improved and then systematized in Rogerius’s The Practice of Surgery. Universities began systematic training of physicians around the years 1220 in Italy. During the Renaissance, understanding of anatomy improved with pioneering works such as those from Andreas Vesalius, and the microscope was invented. The germ theory of disease in the nineteenth century led to cures for many infectious diseases. Military doctors advanced the methods of trauma treatment and surgery. Public health measures were developed especially in the nineteenth century as the rapid growth of cities required systematic sanitary measures. Advanced research centers opened in the early twentieth century, often connected with major hospitals. The mid-twentieth century was characterized by new biological treatments, such as antibiotics. These advancements, along with developments in chemistry, genetics, and lab technology (such as the x-ray) led to modern medicine. Medicine was heavily professionalized in the twentieth century, and new careers opened to women as nurses (from the 1870s) and as physicians (especially after 1970) and at the same time disease specialization arose in the sense of providing medical care with respect to the specific characteristics of the disease as well as provided from specialized medical professionals. The twenty-first century is characterized by highly advanced research involving numerous fields of science. …