medical technology

An even more dramatic result of the growth in chemical knowledge was the expansion of the pharmaceutical industry. The science of pharmacy emerged slowly from the traditional empiricism of the herbalist, but by the end of the 19th century there had been some…

…the modern versions of those instruments are nothing to sneeze at, consider the surgical knives, gorgets, and trepans of centuries past. Those vintage tools were crude at best by modern standards, and yet, they were amazingly effective…some of the time. But perhaps most scary of all is that some models…

Modern technology now makes it possible to maintain ventilation (by respirators), cardiac function (by various pumping devices), feeding (by the intravenous route), and the elimination of the waste products of metabolism (by dialysis) in a body whose brain is irreversibly dead. In these macabre by-products…

…become a major by-product of modern technology. The philosophy of modern medicine has been diverted from attention to the sick and has begun to reify the sickness. Instead of perceiving death as something natural, modern physicians have come to see it as bad or alien, a defeat of all their…

The treatment of many human disease conditions requires surgical intervention in order to assist, augment, sustain, or replace a diseased organ, and such procedures involve the use of materials foreign to the body. These materials, known as biomaterials, include synthetic polymers and,…