Has medical science improved more in the last 15 years than the previous 80 before that?

Question

I have a debate going at work, i believe that we have made more progress towards medical breakthroughs within surgery and treatment of terminal diseases in the last 15-20 years than we have in the 80 years previous to that, what is your opinion?

Answer 1

I'd say yes !!

Answer 2

If you examine the treatments you will often find that the history which brought the doc's to that place is entrenched in ancient observations. IE Red blankets were used in the past in a&e dept because the colour red has an adverse reation on lots of bacteria etc. How? We don't know. But this has been known 4 centuries.
Maggots have been re introduced into medicine for ulcers that won't heal.
Trepanning has also been re-introduced as a way of treating depression.
Bleeding the patient can also aid heart conditions!
The problem is that most learned people become intellectual snobs. This makes progress rather slow! As they discount anything they don't like and discriminate upon any ancient practises.
So the question is, is the attitude of medical professionals leading to the need to progress "Surgically" because they discount the more holistic approach?

Answer 3

it is a detatable question, if the previous 80 years were not there than the last 15 years would not be. So both are important and work together. There is a definite progress in the last 15 years but the previous 80 years gave the base for research and development.

Answer 4

The big revolution the understanding of how organisms work has come in molecular genetics in the last 25 years, without a doubt. Unfortunately, it has not proved to be as successful so far in medical treatments as was first hoped. So the answer to your question is 'yes in theory, no in practice'. The revolution in treatment is coming though - gene therapy will be huge in the next 15 years.

Answer 5

Can't answer the question, but I'd like to point out that the previous poster is talking rubbish. There is no such thing as red blankets being used in hospitals for some unknown antibacterial properties.

Red blankets used to be used in casualty departments to indicate the most urgent cases, which may be the source of the myth.

Answer 6

Despite all the breakthroughs and advancements in medical science, the death rate from all causes is still 100%.

Answer 7

Advances in genetics have resulted in a huge improvement in medicine namely identifying what genes code for and how they relate to disease.

Answer 8

if you consider chemical medicine an advance then yes