At the doctor's office, hospital, or clinic, patients rarely consider the medical equipment around them. Medical equipment service in California is an integral part of diagnosis, monitoring, and therapy. Even the simplest physical exam can often require a variety of high-tech medical equipment.
In 15th century Europe, during and
after the horrors of the bubonic plague, autopsies began to be performed at
universities, and a primitive form of 'scientific method' began to take hold in
the minds of the educated. Practical surgery and anatomy studies began. These
curious medieval Europeans laid the foundation for modern science. They also
laid the foundation for the well known process of identifying a problem, creating
a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis by most importantly observing and
experimenting; interpreting the data and drawing a conclusion.
Medical equipment prior to and even
during the scientific revolution was based on classical Greek and Roman theories
about science, which were not based on science at all, but on philosophy and
superstition. Human health was viewed as a balance of 4 internal 'humors' in
the body. The 4 humors-- blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm, were
analogous to the 4 elements of the universe to the classical thinker, fire,
air, water, and earth. Ailments, both physical and mental, were caused by an
imbalance of humors. The ideal mind and body balanced all 4 humors, gracefully.
To heal, doctors prescribed foods or procedures which would balance the fluids
in the body. Some of the prescriptions seem to make sense-- fevers were treated
with cold, dry temperature to combat the hot, wet over stimulation in the body.
But when that failed, often the next step was blood letting. Unnecessary
purging and enemas were also common cures, which might have helped some people,
but also might have caused more problems than they solved.
Medical equipment acts as an
extension for investigation of the how's and why's of the human body, and as
science catches up and surpasses the investigations, completely new kinds of
medical diagnosis, monitoring and therapy may result. The future is unknowable;
the only aspect about it we can understand is that it will look nothing like we
could have previously imagined. In retrospect, we'll see the signs, like we
always do, but this is hindsight, not foresight. Presently, technology marches
forward and it continues, as a process, to change human life.
