The world today isn’t a fully healthy place but we are getting there. Whether it’s through paying more attention to mental or physical health, we are much better off than we were a few decades ago or even ten years ago. For example, for most of the twentieth century, mental health was very poorly understood. Shell shock was thought of as a moral weakness and not trauma that was being inflicted directly on the brain. Illnesses and disorders that we today think of as common place were seen as weird and scary and no one, not even professional psychologists, fully understood them. On the physical end of health, we had no idea of the some of the health risks that certain things had, including tobacco and alcohol. It was only with the advent of very modern medicine that we began to think of these problems as stemming from large systemic sources that might actually have solutions if we work hard enough at them. To this end, we really began to work on devices and machines that could aid in medicine when sheer human effort proved to be just not enough. Everything from the doctor shoulder bag to the clinical bag to the CAT scan machine to the X ray machine came from intrepid inventors who saw a problem and knew that they wanted to fix it. But how did we go from having very basic and simple medical tools to having the advanced tools we possess today? Who invented them and where did they get their ideas? Even something as simple as the doctor shoulder bag didn’t come from nowhere. The doctor satchel bag, clinical bags, carrying cases, surgical tools, hospital beds, these all didn’t come from nowhere. They came from developing needs in the developing medical world and their stories are pretty interesting if you pay attention.
The Start of Modern Medicine
Modern medicine, and modern medical tools, started out as we know them in the mid and late nineteenth century, a time when the state of caring for physical health was far different than it is today. Back then even tools for delivering anesthetic were crude and painful. For example, most doctors would have patients drink brandy or something similar before an operation to lessen the pain. Especially in war time, this was the only way to ensure the patient might be calmer and cooperative during what could otherwise be an incredibly painful surgery. Doctors would often carry their tools in a simple uncleaned bag or a collection of bags, laying them about with little regard for pathogens. Even germ theory wasn’t well understood at the time so hygiene wasn’t dealt with in a way that did patients any favors.
Medical Tools in the Twentieth Century
As medical tools, doctor bags, the doctor shoulder bag, and all, began to develop in the twentieth century, the industry slowly became aware of more acceptable standards and practices that would keep the large quantity of sick people safe. This included washing the new and more precise scalpels, having individual and one time use surgical tools instead of using the same ones over and over and using better and better medicines and medications that could more effectively get at the root of all of the internal physical problems that people have. This didn’t solve everything, of course. There was, and still is, a long way to go in that regard. The Spanish Flu killed millions and there was only so much anyone could do, the doctor shoulder bag or not. But things really did get better and the world got to be a cleaner, healthier and less chaotic place overall.
Medical Tools in the Modern Day
Today, medical tools are kept for precision and safety above all else. Machines such as CAT scan machines can look deep into a person without any side effects at all. The use of digital imaging and sonar technology makes tracking illnesses and injuries easier than ever before. We live in a high tech medical world and it’s only going to keep getting more advanced with time. We’ll have to wait and see what the future holds.