Technology y Medicine

Technology and medicine

Machines became central to medicine in Europe during the 1800s. Medicine had always relied on technology such as scalpels, probes and material medical. However, by the start of the 20th century new instruments were available to study, diagnose and treat the body. Today, hospitals worldwide use complex, computerized machines to image the body or assist its function.

Developing medical devices in the 1800s

During the 1800s doctors and biomedical scientists developed instruments to examine and understand the body. Devices such as the thermometer, microscope and kymograph revealed how healthy and diseased bodies worked. In 1816, French doctor Rene Laennec invented the stethoscope. This simple wooden tube enabled doctors to hear and diagnose chest diseases. It became an iconic object in biomedicine. Other instruments were developed over the century: the ophthalmoscope saw into specific organs such as the eye and the oesophagus; the sphygmograph provided information about organs deep inside the body such as the heart. Many instruments became routine equipment.

Using electrical machines as therapy in the 1800s

Electrotherapy machines used electricity to treat patients during the 1800s. Electrostatic machines and galvanic or faradic devices gave brief electric shocks or sustained electric current to patients’ bodies.

Other machines produced light or heat for heliotherapy and diathermy therapies. Doctors initially used such machines to treat conditions such as gout, paralysis and toothache. However, many were ineffective. Others are still useful therapy. They treat pain, spasms and brain conditions such as epilepsy. A distant relative of electrotherapy is electroconvulsive therapy (ECT, sometimes called electroshock). This was invented in the 1930s and is a controversial treatment for mental illness. ECT in a modified form is still used to treat some cases of severe depression

X-rays transform diagnosis

German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X-rays in 1895. This changed the way doctors diagnosed and treated disease. X-ray machines became powerful medical tools over the next 30 years, especially during the First World War. Doctors could now see deep inside the body without using exploratory surgery.

X-rays were not just used for diagnosis. Cancer could be treated using X-ray radiation therapy devices. However, unprotected exposure to X ray radiation causes burns and cancer. Many patients and radiologists in the early 20th century died from overexposure before the risks were understood. Using proper safety measures, X rays were the main imaging technology until the 1970s. Other imaging machines such as the CT, PET and MRI scanner were developed. Unlike traditional X ray machines, they gave detailed views of the body’s complex structures, such as the brain.

Developing technology to assist

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