Topic Summaries

Key individuals in medical history

GCSE > History > Edexcel > GCSE History: Medicine and Health in Britain (1000-Present) Topic Summaries > Key individuals in medical history
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Summary table
  Name Known For
Medieval Hippocrates Father of medicine, Theory of Four Humours, Hippocratic Oath
Galen Theory of Opposites
Ibn Sina Wrote the first medical textbook
Al-Zahrawi Founded medical surgery
Al-Razi Father of psychology and psychotherapy
Hugh and Theodoric of Lucca Wine as antiseptic to treat wounds
John of Arderne ‘Father of English surgery,’ treating anal fistulas
Renaissance Andreas Vesalius Anatomy and human dissection
Ambroise Paré Vascular ligatures, battlefield surgery
Thomas Sydenham ‘English Hippocrates,’ clinical observation of patients
William Harvey Blood circulation
John Hunter Anatomical specimens, dentistry
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Observed bacteria and microorganisms under microscopes
Industrial Edward Jenner Vaccination (smallpox)
Ignaz Semmelweis Handwashing to reduce maternal mortality
John Snow Epidemiology, waterborne cholera transmission
Louis Pasteur Germ theory, vaccines, pasteurisation
Joseph Lister Antiseptic surgery
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson First female doctor
Modern Florence Nightingale Founded modern nursing, improved hospital sanitation
Karl Landsteiner Blood groups
Robert Koch Identified bacteria as causes of disease
Paul Ehrlich ‘Magic bullets,’ chemotherapy
Marie Curie Radiography, medical imaging
Alexander Fleming Discovered penicillin
Howard Florey and Ernst Chain Co-developed and mass produced penicillin
Jonas Salk Polio vaccine
Rosalind Franklin Found evidence of DNA structure
Tu Youyou Discovered artemisinin to treat malaria
Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier Co-developed CRISPR gene editing technology

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