Looking Back at the History of Medicine

My life has been a whirl wind since I have returned from Germany. Between classes starting back up, taking the MCAT, running the Houston half marathon and planning a running a retreat for fifty high school students I haven’t had had much free time. So when my cousin sent me a message a couple of days ago asking about my trip to Germany I had to stop and process everything we did.

The first memory that came to me was observing the surgeries. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute from studying a heart beat inside a man’s chest while the surgeons performed a triple bypass to watching the surgeon suture up a girl’s arm after repairing a fracture. Then I began to remember the cities we visited, like Berlin, Vienna, Hannover, Copenhagen, Dresden and Bonn. The New Year’s Eve celebration in Berlin is one of my favorite memories. I usually don’t like large parties and lots of noise, but celebrating the New Year with thousands of people from around the world is quite the experience. If I were to return to Germany I would like to visit Dresden again and spend time along the Elbe River. I would also head back to Copenhagen in the spring or summer time. It was nice in the winter, but I could tell that it would be outstanding when there wasn’t snow and slush on the ground. And as the memories continued to flow, I remembered the people we met through AIB, in the hospitals, and the museums.

I’m very fond of all theses memories; however, I feel that the most important idea I took away from the trip was not a memory of a particular place, event or person. Instead the trip left me pondering the impact my generation of doctors and biomedical engineers will make in the medical field.

Before going on this trip I only ever considered the current state of the medical world. I was focused on all the state-of-the-art medical care we have. But the history of medicine museums that we visited in Germany made me realized that the term ‘state-of-the-art’ is relative. At the Charite History of Medicine museum in Berlin we learned about the barbers and laughed at the technique they used to preform amputations. We laughed because it seemed ridiculously obvious to us that using unsterile tools in an unsterile environment would lead to infections, but 200 years ago the procedures were the best they had because germs had not been discovered. Which of our ‘state of the art’ medical equipment will be laughed at by the new ‘future of medicine’ some 200 years form now? I don’t say this to disclaim or belittle the discoveries we will make, but make a point that there is much will change both during and after our time.

Then, when we discussed the invention of the stethoscope on the Medical History Walk in Vienna, I began to ponder our acceptance to these new innovations. The stethoscope is a staple of a doctor. If you were to dress up as a Doctor for Halloween you would put on a pair of scrubs and hang a stethoscope around your neck. Today doctors rely on them to diagnose patients. But, when the stethoscope was first discovered, the doctors of the time thought the idea was worthless. What incredible medical invention is sitting right in front of us that we refuse to accept as important?

These two thoughts have floated around in my head since we returned to Texas. In high school history we were taught that history was important because we needed to learn from our mistakes in order to have a successful future, but until this trip I had not considered applying this idea medicine. Our generation is capable of advancing the medical world relative to where it is today as long as we study the developments that have occurred, find the weaknesses, and integrate new knowledge and technology as it advances.