Medical Education
Theories of Disease
Public Health
Tools and Technology
Famous Figures
100
What requirements did potential medical students have to meet in order to be accepted into medical school in the mid-to-late 19th century?
Almost none - not until the last decades of the century or so where some schools began to mandate high school diplomas, BAs, or entrance exam requirements.
100
What is the germ theory of disease?
Diseases caused by specific entities; begins the notion that it’s an individual’s personal responsibility to keep themselves and their areas clean.
100
Name three public health responses to the 19th century outbreaks of cholera in the U.S.
Quarantine, chloride of lime, burning “infected” goods, cleaning the streets
100
What is being treated in the following image?
Tuberculosis (sanitarium).
100
Robert Koch
German physician who believed specific entities caused specific illnesses; discovered the anthrax bacillus in 1876 and TB in 1882.
200
When and why was the AMA formed?
1847; raise the standards of medical education
200
What is the filth theory of disease?
(Infectious) disease caused by emanations from decaying matter; Tx is to clean up the area, and it’s the government’s responsibility to clean it up, rather than personal responsibility (MP 239).
200
What are two implications of bacteriology for public health?
-Able to identify and track infectious diseases. -Able to identify infectious diseases and apply preventive measures such as fumigation, vaccination, quarantine in a targeted, efficient way. -Justification for municipal sanitation programs, clean water, food/milk/restaurant inspection – public hygiene. -Justification for creating public health departments. -Give public health authorities/labs/health departments the ability to test for, monitor, and prevent disease. -Allows public health departments (and private companies) to create biologics like diphtheria anti-toxin, vaccines. -Justification for health inspection and quarantine of immigrants with infectious diseases.
200
What was aseptic technique and why was it important?
Post-op infections in the mid-19th century killed many patients; aseptic technique (soaking surgical tools in carbolic acid, for example) dramatically reduced the number of infections. Joseph Lister, 1860s. It worked as strong support for the germ theory.
200
Elizabeth Blackwell
First woman to receive her (allopathic) medical license in 1849.
300
Why did the number of medical schools in the country begin to decrease around the turn of the century?
New medical education requirements meant that schools without the requisite requirements (like access to a hospital in which students could get clinical experience, or an institutional affiliation) had to close their doors.
300
Humoral theory/galenic medicine
Body comprised of four humors; health as a state of balance between the humors, ill-health an imbalance; many causes of imbalance; both personal and state responsibilities.
300
What public health messages are these advertisements sending?
Public health is an individual responsibility; being clean is a moral issue; being clean keeps you healthy; others need to be taught to be clean.
300
What are 4 characteristics of scientific medicine?
Germ theory Rise of statistics/quantification The laboratory Use of new tools/techniques Experimentalism
300
Abraham Flexner
Medical reformer and author of the 1910 Flexner report which condemned the state of medical education in the U.S.
400
What is this image and what does it reflect about medical education in the mid-19th century?
Through much of the 19th century medical students had to buy admission to lectures; medical education often for-profit; people who could attend weren’t necessarily those who were intellectually qualified, but those who could afford to pay.
400
What is the zymotic disease theory?
Epidemic, endemic, and contagious diseases; caused by the ingestion of a non-living organic substance individual to each disease that ferment in the body, causing illness. In this sense, it’s an early precursor to the germ theory. NOT contagious, however - spread through the environment, not from person to person.
400
What is the new public health?
-Public Health is an individual responsibility -Being clean is a moral issue -Being clean keeps you healthy -Others need to be taught to be clean
400
What were some (2 or more) of the technological innovations in TB detection, prevention, and Tx in the early 20th century?
Mantoux test (tuberculin, 1908) X-rays Finsen rays BCG vaccine Artificial pneumothorax (1946) Chemotherapy
400
Amelia Bloomer
Women's rights activist who campaigned for dress reform in the late 19th century.
500
What was the effect of Jacksonian democracy on medical education and medicine in general?
Got rid of licensing laws, so anyone could call themselves a doctor; negated any set standards for medical education.
500
What is anti-contagionism?
Did not believe in disease as a thing that spreads from person to person, or often that diseases were caused by specific entities. Rather, that they’re environmental/atmospheric. Feared disease specificity would remove both personal and also state responsibility for health.
500
What does the phrase “germs know no color line” mean?
Disease affects everyone, regardless of race - could mean discrimination, or acknowledgement that everyone deserves access to healthy living opportunities.
500
According to the Major Problems book, how is “technology” defined? (give at least three examples/categories of things included)
“Technology refers not only to machines and instruments but also to clinical facilities (intensive care units and surgical suites); laboratory tests; an ever-expanding array of drugs; research techniques such as the randomized clinical trial; and, in fact, any ‘knowledge-producing tool’ used for a medical purpose.” (p. 349)
500
Mary Mallon
"Typhoid Mary." Irish immigrant who was a carrier of typhoid. Eventually quarantined from society.
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