History of Medicine - World Wars

World Wars

The 20th century witnessed a shift from a master-apprentice paradigm of teaching of clinical medicine to a more "democratic" system of medical schools. With the advent of the evidence-based medicine and great advances of information technology the process of change is likely to evolve further, with greater development of international projects such as the Human genome project.

During the 20th century, large-scale wars were attended with medics and mobile hospital units which developed advanced techniques for healing massive injuries and controlling infections rampant in battlefield conditions. Thousands of scarred troops provided the need for improved prosthetic limbs and expanded techniques in plastic surgery or reconstructive surgery. Those practices were combined to broaden cosmetic surgery and other forms of elective surgery.

During the First World War, Alexis Carrel and Henry Dakin developed the Carrel-Dakin method of treating wounds with an irrigation, Dakin's solution, a germicide which helped prevent gangrene.

The Great War spurred the usage of Roentgen's X-ray, and the electrocardiograph, for the monitoring of internal bodily functions. This was followed in the inter-war period by the development of the first anti-bacterial agents such as the sulpha antibiotics. The Second World War saw the introduction of widespread and effective antimicrobial therapy with the development and mass production of penicillin antibiotics, made possible by the pressures of the war and the collaboration of British scientists with the American pharmaceutical industry.

The 1918 flu pandemic killed at least 50 million people around the world, and has become an important case study in epidemiology, see Spanish flu research.

Human subject research, and killing of patients with disabilities, were at its height during the mid-20th century, with Nazi human experimentation and Aktion T4 during the Holocaust as the most significant example, followed up by the Doctors' Trial. Principles of medical ethics, such as the Nuremberg Code, have been introduced to prevent atrocities.

During and just after World War II, DDT was used as insecticide to combat insect vectors carrying malaria and typhus.