Timeline of medicine and medical technology

Updated on Sep 27, 2024

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Timeline of the history of medicine and medical technology.

Antiquity

3300 BC – During the Stone Age, early doctors used very primitive forms of herbal medicine.

3000 BC – Ayurveda The origins of Ayurveda have been traced back to around 4,000 BCE.

c.2600 BC – Imhotep the priest-physician who was later deified as the Egyptian god of medicine.

2500 BC – Iry Egyptian inscription speaks of Iry as [eye-doctor of the palace,] [palace physician of the belly,] [guardian of the royal bowels,] and [he who prepares the important medicine (name cannot be translated) and knows the inner juices of the body.]

1900 BC – 1600 BC Akkadian clay tablets on medicine survive primarily as copies from Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh.

1800 BC – Code of Hammurabi sets out fees for surgeons and punishments for malpractice

1800 BC – Kahun Gynecological Papyrus

1600 BC – Hearst papyrus, coprotherapy and magic

1551 BC – Ebers Papyrus, coprotherapy and magic

1500 BC – Saffron used as a medicine on the Aegean island of Thera in ancient Greece

1500 BC – Edwin Smith Papyrus, an Egyptian medical text and the oldest known surgical treatise (no true surgery) no magic

1300 BC – Brugsch Papyrus and London Medical Papyrus

1250 BC – Asklepios

9th century- Hesiod reports an ontological conception of disease via the Pandora myth. Disease has a "life" of its own but is of divine origin.

8th century – Homer tells that Polydamna supplied the Greek forces besieging Troy with healing drugs Homer also tells about battlefield surgery Idomeneus tells Nestor after Machaon had fallen: A surgeon who can cut out an arrow and heal the wound with his ointments is worth a regiment.

700 BC – Cnidos medical school; also one at Cos

500 BC – Darius I orders the restoration of the House of Life (First record of a (much older) medical school)

500 BC – Bian Que becomes the earliest physician known to use acupuncture and pulse diagnosis

500 BC – the Sushruta Samhita is published, laying the framework for Ayurvedic medicine

c. 490 – c. 430 Empedocles four elements

510–430 BC – Alcmaeon of Croton scientific anatomic dissections. He studied the optic nerves and the brain, arguing that the brain was the seat of the senses and intelligence. He distinguished veins from the arteries and had at least vague understanding of the circulation of the blood. Variously described by modern scholars as Father of Anatomy; Father of Physiology; Father of Embryology; Father of Psychology; Creator of Psychiatry; Founder of Gynecology; and as the Father of Medicine itself. There is little evidence to support the claims but he is, nonetheless, important.

fl. 425 BC Diogenes of Apollonia

c. 484 – 425 BC Herodotus tells us Egyptian doctors were specialists: Medicine is practiced among them on a plan of separation; each physician treats a single disorder, and no more. Thus the country swarms with medical practitioners, some undertaking to cure diseases of the eye, others of the head, others again of the teeth, others of the intestines,and some those which are not local.

496–405 BC – Sophocles "It is not a learned physician who sings incantations over pains which should be cured by cutting."

420 BC – Hippocrates of Cos maintains that diseases have natural causes and puts forth the Hippocratic Oath. Origin of rational medicine.

Medicine after Hippocrates

c. 400 BC – 1 BC – The Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine) is published, laying the framework for traditional Chinese medicine

4th century BC – Philistion of Locri Praxagoras distinguishes veins and arteries and determines only arteries pulse

375–295 BC Diocles of Carystus

354 BC – Critobulus of Cos extracts an arrow from the eye of Phillip II, treating the loss of the eyeball without causing facial disfigurement.

3rd century BC – Philinus of Cos founder of the Empiricist school. Herophilos and Erasistratus practice androtomy. (Dissecting live and dead human beings)

280 BC – Herophilus Dissection studies the nervous system and distinguishes between sensory nerves and motor nerves and the brain. also the anatomy of the eye and medical terminology such as (in Latin translation "net like" becomes retiform/retina.

270 – Huangfu Mi writes the Zhenjiu Jiayijing (The ABC Compendium of Acupuncture), the first textbook focusing solely on acupuncture

250 BC – Erasistratus studies the brain and distinguishes between the cerebrum and cerebellum physiology of the brain, heart and eyes, and in the vascular, nervous, respiratory and reproductive systems.

219 – Zhang Zhongjing publishes Shang Han Lun (On Cold Disease Damage).

200 BC – the Charaka Samhita uses a rational approach to the causes and cure of disease and uses objective methods of clinical examination

124–44 BC – Asclepiades of Bithynia

116–27 BC – Marcus Terentius Varro Germ theory of disease No one paid any attention to it.

1st century AD – Rufus of Ephesus; Marcellinus a physician of the first century AD; Numisianus

23 AD – 79 AD Pliny the Elder writes Natural History

c. 25 BC – c. 50 AD Aulus Cornelius Celsus Medical encyclopedia

50–70 AD – Pedanius Dioscorides writes De Materia Medica – a precursor of modern pharmacopoeias that was in use for almost 1600 years

2nd century AD Aretaeus of Cappadocia

98–138 AD – Soranus of Ephesus

129–216 AD – Galen Clinical medicine based on observation and experience. The resulting tightly integrated and comprehensive system, offering a complete medical philosophy dominated medicine throughout the Middle Ages and until the beginning of the modern era.

After Galen 200 AD

d. 260 – Gargilius Martialis, short Latin handbook on Medicines from Vegetables and Fruits

4th century Magnus of Nisibis, Alexandrian doctor and professor book on urine

325–400 – Oribasius 70 volume encyclopedia

362 – Julian orders xenones built, imitating Christian charity (proto hospitals)

369 Basil of Caesarea founded at Caesarea in Cappadocia an institution (hospital) called Basilias, with several buildings for patients, nurses, physicians, workshops, and schools

375 – Ephrem the Syrian opened a hospital at Edessa They spread out and specialized nosocomia for the sick, brephotrophia for foundlings, orphanotrophia for orphans, ptochia for the poor, xenodochia for poor or infirm pilgrims, and gerontochia for the old.

400 – The first hospital in Latin Christendom was founded by Fabiola at Rome

420 – Caelius Aurelianus a doctor from Sicca Veneria (El-Kef, Tunisia) handbook On Acute and Chronic Diseases in Latin.

447 – Cassius Felix of Cirta (Constantine, Ksantina, Algeria), medical handbook drew on Greek sources, Methodist and Galenist in Latin

480–547 Benedict of Nursia founder of "monastic medicine"

484 – 590 Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus

fl. 511–534 Anthimus Greek: Ἄνθιμος

536 Sergius of Reshaina (died 536) A Christian theologian-physician who translated thirty-two of Galen’s works into Syriac and wrote medical treatises of his own

525–605 – Alexander of Tralles Alexander Trallianus

500–550 – Aetius of Amida Encyclopedia 4 books each divided into 4 sections

second half of 6th century building of xenodocheions/bimārestāns by the Nestorians under the Sasanians, would evolve into the complex secular "Islamic hospital", which combined lay practice and Galenic teaching

550–630 Stephanus of Athens

560–636 – Isidore of Seville

c. 620 Aaron of Alexandria Syriac . He wrote 30 books on medicine, the "Pandects". He was the first author in antiquity who mentioned the diseases of smallpox and measles translated by Māsarjawaih a Syrian Jew and Physician, into Arabic about A. D. 683

c. 630 – Paul of Aegina Encyclopedia in 7 books very detailed surgery used by Albucasis

790–869 Leo Itrosophist also Mathematician or Philosopher wrote "Epitome of Medicine"

c. 800–873 – Al-Kindi (Alkindus) De Gradibus

820 – Benedictine hospital founded, School of Salerno would grow around it

857d – Mesue the elder (Yūḥannā ibn Māsawayh) Syriac Christian

c. 830–870 – Hunayn ibn Ishaq (Johannitius) Syriac-speaking Christian also knew Greek and Arabic. Translator and author of several medical tracts.

c. 838–870 – Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari, writes an encyclopedia of medicine in Arabic.

c. 910d – Ishaq ibn Hunayn

9th century Yahya ibn Sarafyun a Syriac physician Johannes Serapion, Serapion the Elder

c. 865–925 – Rhazes pediatrics, and makes the first clear distinction between smallpox and measles in his al-Hawi.

d. 955 – Isaac Judaeus Isḥāq ibn Sulaymān al-Isrāʾīlī Egyptian born Jewish physician

913–982 – Shabbethai Donnolo alleged founding father of School of Salerno wrote in Hebrew

d. 982–994 'Ali ibn al-'Abbas al-Majusi Haly Abbas

1000 – Albucasis (936-1018) surgery Kitab al-Tasrif, surgical instruments.

1020 – Ammar ibn `Ali al-Mawsili performed the first successful eye surgery. Using a needle and removing a cataract.

d. 1075 – Ibn Butlan Christian physician of Baghdad Tacuinum sanitatis the Arabic original and most of the Latin copies, are in tabular format

1018–1087 Michael Psellos or Psellus a Byzantine monk, writer, philosopher, politician and historian. several books on medicine

c. 1030 – Avicenna The Canon of Medicine The Canon remains a standard textbook in Muslim and European universities until the 18th century.

c. 1071–1078 Simeon Seth or Symeon Seth an 11th-century Jewish Byzantine translated Arabic works into Greek

1084 – First documented hospital in England Canterbury

1087d – Constantine the African

1083–1153 Anna Komnene, Latinized as Comnena

1095 – Congregation of the Antonines, was founded to treat victims of "St. Anthony's fire" a skin disease.

late 11th early 12th century Trotula

1123 – St Bartholomew's Hospital founded by the court jester Rahere Augustine nuns originally cared for the patients. Mental patients were accepted along with others

1127 – Stephen of Antioch translated the work of Haly Abbas

1100–1161 – Avenzoar Teacher of Averroes

1170 Rogerius Salernitanus composed his Chirurgia also known as The Surgery of Roger

1126–1198 – Averroes

c. 1161d – Matthaeus Platearius

1200–1499

1203 – Innocent III organized the hospital of Santo Spirito at Rome inspiring others all over Europe

c. 1210–1277 – William of Saliceto also known as Guilielmus de Saliceto

1210 – 1295 Taddeo Alderotti Scholastic medicine

1240 Bartholomeus Anglicus

1242 – Ibn an-Nafis suggests that the right and left ventricles of the heart are separate and discovers the pulmonary circulation and coronary circulation

c. 1248 – Ibn al-Baitar wrote on botany and pharmacy, studied animal anatomy and medicine veterinary medicine.

1249 – Roger Bacon writes about convex lens spectacles for treating long-sightedness

1257 – 1316 Pietro d'Abano also known as Petrus De Apono or Aponensis

1260 – Louis IX established, Les Quinze-vingt; originally a retreat for the blind, it became a hospital for eye diseases, and is now one of the most important medical centers in Paris

c. 1260–1316 Henri de Mondeville

1284 – Mansur hospital of Cairo

c. 1275 – c. 1328 Joannes Zacharias Actuarius a Byzantine physician wrote the last great compendium of Byzantine medicine

1275–1326 Mondino de Luzzi "Mundinus" carried out the first systematic human dissections since Herophilus of Chalcedon and Erasistratus of Ceos 1500 years earlier.

1288 The hospital of Santa Maria Nuova founded in Florence, it was strictly medical.

1300 – concave lens spectacles to treat myopia developed in Italy.

1310 Pietro d'Abano's Conciliator (c.1310)

d. 1348 Gentile da Foligno

1292–1350 – Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziya

1306–1390 John of Arderne

d. 1368 Guy de Chauliac

f. 1460 Heinrich von Pfolspeundt

1443–1502 Antonio Benivieni Pathological anatomy

1493–1541 Paracelsus On the relationship between medicine and surgery surgery book

1500–1799

early 16th century:

Paracelsus, an alchemist by trade, rejects occultism and pioneers the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine. Burns the books of Avicenna, Galen and Hippocrates.

Hieronymus Fabricius His "Surgery" is mostly that of Celsus, Paul of Aegina, and Abulcasis citing them by name.

Caspar Stromayr or Stromayer Sixteenth Century

1500?–1561 Pierre Franco

Ambroise Pare 1510-1590 pioneered the treatment of gunshot wounds.

Bartholomeo Maggi at Bologna, Felix Wurtz of Zurich, Léonard Botal in Paris, and the Englishman Thomas Gale (surgeon), (the diversity of their geographical origins attests to the widespread interest of surgeons in the problem), all published works urging similar treatment to Paré’s. But it was Paré’s writings which were the most influential.

1518 – College of Physicians founded now known as Royal College of Physicians of London is a British professional body of doctors of general medicine and its subspecialties. It received the royal charter in 1518

1510–1590 Ambroise Paré surgeon

1540–1604 William Clowes (surgeon) Surgical chest for military surgeons

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

1550–1612 Peter Lowe

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

1570–1643 John Woodall Ship surgeons used lemon juice to treat scurvy wrote "The Surgions Mate"

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

1621–1676 Richard Wiseman

1628 – William Harvey explains the circulatory system in Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus

1683–1758 Lorenz Heister

1688–1752 William Cheselden

1701 – Giacomo Pylarini gives the first smallpox inoculations in Europe. They were widely practised in the east before then.

1714–1789 Percivall Pott

1720 – Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

1728–1793 John Hunter (surgeon)

1736 – Claudius Aymand performs the first successful appendectomy

1744–1795 Pierre-Joseph Desault First surgical periodical

1747 – James Lind discovers that citrus fruits prevent scurvy

1749–1806 Benjamin Bell Leading surgeon of his time and father of a surgical dynasty system of surgery

1752–1832 Antonio Scarpa

1763–1820John Bell (surgeon)

1766–1842 Dominique Jean Larrey Surgeon to Napoleon

1768–1843 Astley Cooper surgeon lectures principles and practice

1774–1842 Charles Bell, surgeon

1774 – Joseph Priestley discovers nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, ammonia, hydrogen chloride and oxygen

1777–1835 – Baron Guillaume Dupuytren Head surgeon at Hôtel-Dieu de Paris, The age Dupuytren

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.

1813–1883 James Marion Sims vesico-vaganial surgery Father of surgical gynecology.

1816 – Rene Laennec invents the stethoscope.

1827–1912 Joseph Lister antiseptic surgery Father of modern surgery

1818 – James Blundell performs the first successful human transfusion.

1842 – Crawford Long performs the first surgical operation using anesthesia with ether.

1845 – John Hughes Bennett first describes leukemia as a blood disorder.

1846 – First painless surgery with general anesthetic.

1847 – Ignaz Semmelweis discovers how to prevent puerperal fever.

1849 – Elizabeth Blackwell is the first woman to gain a medical degree in the United States.

1850 – Female Medical College of Pennsylvania (later Woman's Medical College), the first medical college in the world to grant degrees to women, is founded in Philadelphia.

1858 – Rudolf Carl Virchow 13 October 1821 – 5 September 1902 his theories of cellular pathology spelled the end of Humoral medicine.

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.

1878 – Ellis Reynolds Shipp graduates from Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania and begins practice in Utah.

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

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 invents 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 Jacobaeus 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; Enrique Finochietto develops the now ubiquitous self-retaining thoracic retractor

1938 – Ugo Cerletti and Lucio Bini discover electroconvulsive therapy

1943 – Willem J. Kolff build the first dialysis machine

1944 – Disposable catheter – David S. Sheridan

1946 – Chemotherapy – Alfred G. Gilman and Louis S. Goodman

1947 – Defibrillator – Claude Beck

1948 – Acetaminophen – Julius Axelrod, Bernard Brodie

1949 – First implant of intraocular lens, by Sir Harold Ridley

1949 – Mechanical assistor for anesthesia – John Emerson

1952 – Jonas Salk develops the first polio vaccine (available in 1955)

1952 – Cloning – Robert Briggs and Thomas King

1953 – Heart-Lung Machine – John Heysham Gibbon

1953 – Medical Ultrasonography – Inge Edler

1954 – Joseph Murray performs the first human kidney transplant (on identical twins)

1954 – Ventouse – Tage Malmstrom

1955 – Tetracycline – Lloyd Conover

1956 – Metered Dose Inhaler – 3M

1957 – William Grey Walter invents the brain EEG topography (toposcope)

1958 – Pacemaker – Rune Elmqvist

1959 – In vitro fertilization – Min Chueh Chang

1960 – Invention of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)

1960 – First combined oral contraceptive approved by the FDA

1962 – Hip replacement – John Charnley

1962 – Beta blocker James W. Black

1962 – First oral polio vaccine (Sabin)

1963 – Artificial heart – Paul Winchell

1963 – Thomas Starzl performs the first human liver transplant

1963 – James Hardy performs the first human lung transplant

1963 – Valium (diazepam) – Leo H. Sternbach

1964 – First vaccine for measles

1965 – Frank Pantridge installs the first portable defibrillator

1965 – First commercial ultrasound

1966 – C. Walton Lillehei performs the first human pancreas transplant

1966 – Rubella Vaccine – Harry Martin Meyer and Paul D. Parkman

1967 – First vaccine for mumps

1967 – Christiaan Barnard performs the first human heart transplant

1968 – Powered prothesis – Samuel Alderson

1968 – Controlled drug delivery – Alejandro Zaffaron

1969 – Balloon catheter – Thomas Fogarty

1969 – Cochlear implant – William House

1970 – Cyclosporine, the first effective immunosuppressive drug is introduced in organ transplant practice

1971 – Genetically modified organisms – Ananda Chakrabart

1971 – Magnetic resonance imaging – Raymond Vahan Damadian

1971 – Computed tomography (CT or CAT Scan) – Godfrey Hounsfield

1971 – Transdermal patches – Alejandro Zaffaroni

1971 – Sir Godfrey Hounsfield invents the first commercial CT scanner

1972 – Insulin pump Dean Kamen

1973 – Laser eye surgery (LASIK) – Mani Lal Bhaumik

1974 – Liposuction – Giorgio Fischer

1976 – First commercial PET scanner

1978 – Last fatal case of smallpox

1979 Antiviral drugs – George Hitchings and Gertrude Elion

1980 – Raymond Damadian builds first commercial MRI scanner

1980 – Lithotripter – Dornier Research Group

1980 – First vaccine for hepatitis B – Baruch Samuel Blumberg

1981 – Artificial skin – John F. Burke and Ioannis V Yannas

1981 – Bruce Reitz performs the first human heart-lung combined transplant

1982 – Human insulin – Eli Lilly

Interferon cloning – Sidney Pestka

1985 – Automated DNA sequencer – Leroy Hood and Lloyd Smith

1985 – Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) – Kaery Mullis

1985 – Surgical robot – Yik San Kwoh

1985 – DNA fingerprinting – Alec Jeffreys

1985 – Capsule endoscopy – Tarun Mullick

1986 – Fluoxetine HCl – Eli Lilly and Co

1987 – Ben Carson, leading a 70-member medical team in Germany, was the first to separate occipital craniopagus twins.

1987 – commercially available Statins – Merck & Co.

1987 – Tissue engineering – Joseph Vacanti & Robert Langer

1988 – Intravascular stent – Julio Palmaz

1988 – Laser cataract surgery – Patricia Bath

1989 – Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) – Alan Handyside

1989 – DNA microarray – Stephen Fodor

1990 – Gamow bag® – Igor Gamow

1992 – First vaccine for hepatitis A available

1992 – Electroactive polymers (artificial muscle) – SRI International

1992 – Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) – Andre van Steirteghem

1996 – Dolly the Sheep cloned

1998 – Stem cell therapy – James Thomson

2000 – present

2000 26 June – The Human Genome Project draft was completed.

2001 The first telesurgery was performed by Jacques Marescaux.

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 – The second rotavirus vaccine approved (first was withdrawn).

2007 – The visual prosthetic (bionic eye) Argus II.

2008 – Laurent Lantieri performs the first full face transplant.

2013 – The first kidney was grown in vitro in the U.S.

2013 – The first human liver was grown from stem cells in Japan.

References

Timeline of medicine and medical technology Wikipedia

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