Revolutionary Tech Advancements That Changed Medicine Forever

Medicine is probably the most important aspect of our society today.

A few centuries ago, the human lifespan was much shorter. However, due to many advancements in this field, men and women are now able to live long and happy lives.

Generations of scientists, doctors, and medical experts who dedicated their lives to technological inventions are the main reasons why we are now able to treat almost all diseases.

Today we are going to take a stroll down memory lane and talk about the technological inventions that changed medicine forever. Here’s what those inventions are.

CT Scanner And MRI

Ever since the German physicist, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, discovered his famous X-Ray, scientists and medical experts decided to search for other methods to study the human body without having to cut it open. Logically, this resulted in the invention of the CT scanner. The commercial version of this machine was invented by Dr. Godfrey Hounsfield and for this amazing achievement, he received a Nobel Prize for medicine back in 1979. The main benefit of this machine is the ability to display multiple layers within multiple X-ray images. This changed medicine forever.

Later, Dr. Raymond V. Damadian figured out how to find the difference between cancerous and normal cells by using nuclear magnetic resonance. This technique was later improved and called functional magnetic resonance imaging or MRI. The amazing achievements of modern-day medicine wouldn’t be possible without the CT scanner and MRI scan machine. This is why experts from DirectMed parts and other companies are trying their very best to provide hospitals with the necessary parts for CT scanners and MRI machines. Let’s hope you won’t have a disease that will require the use of these machines, but the fact is that these technological wonders are keeping us safe and healthy.

Cardiac Defibrillator

We hope you only saw this device in movies. Even though it may seem like a pretty new concept and technique, defibrillation of the heart has been known to doctors for many years. However, the person who introduced the cardiac defibrillator to modern medicine is Claude Beck when he managed to defibrillate a young boy’s heart during one of his surgeries. As you probably know, defibrillators save millions of lives today.

Stethoscope

Before the invention of the stethoscope, doctors had to put their ears on the patient’s chest in order to listen to their heartbeats. This was a rather inefficient method because due to fat, lungs, bones, and skin, doctors sometimes weren’t able to ascertain whether or not the patient’s heart is working properly.

Things changed when a French physician called René Laënnec found himself in a similar situation. He didn’t like the fact that he was unable to determine the patient’s heart rate in an exact manner, therefore he decided to invent the stethoscope.

He made a trumpet-shaped wooden tube that amplified sounds coming from the lungs and heart of his patients. The modern stethoscope works on the same principle.

Prosthetics

The invention of the prosthesis has been one of the most important breakthroughs in the field of medicine. Prosthetics enabled men and women with a physical handicap to live their lives without being limited to wheelchairs and crutches. The first prototypes were a bit limiting, but modern technology allowed scientists and inventors to make wonderful prosthetics that made life beautiful for handicapped people. Then, in the 1980s, scientists invented bionic prosthetics and revolutionized this aspect of medicine.

The bionic prosthesis we know today is made from carbon fiber. This makes it lighter and stronger than metal. The new artificial limb is durable, intuitive, and enables people to grip and hold objects.

The Artificial Heart

As you probably know the heart is the most important organ in the human body. It keeps a person alive by transporting blood to various parts of the body. Unfortunately, one of the leading causes of death today is heart disease. One of the ways doctors and medical experts are fighting heart disease is by performing heat transplantations. They’ve been doing this for many years.

However, considering the fact that there were never enough hearts available, doctors had to find another way. This is when the artificial heart was invented. To be more specific, Dr. Robert Jarvik was the first person who managed to create a permanent artificial heart back in 1982. This wonderful invention saved millions of lives.

Medicine has changed drastically during the last fifty years. The inventions we talked about today saved a lot of lives and changed our world for the better. All we mere mortals can do is be thankful to those brilliant scientists who revolutionized medicine and allowed us to live long lives and stay healthy.