Medical Laboratory Science History and Milestones

A comprehensive set of Q&A flashcards covering key persons, concepts, historical milestones, and devices in the history and development of Medical Laboratory Science (Medical Technology) based on the provided lecture notes.

What is Medical Laboratory Science also known as, and what does it refer to?

Medical Technology (medtech); application of diagnosis, preventive, and therapeutic medicine using technology to monitor and improve health.

Ruth Heinemann (1963)

MT is the application of principles of natural physical and biological sciences to laboratory procedures aiding diagnosis and treatment.

Anna Fagelson (1961)

MT is a branch of medicine with laboratory determinations and analyses used in diagnosis and treatment; beginnings traced to the 11th century Alessandra Gillani (Lab Aid) with laboratory-acquired deaths.

Walters (1996)

A health profession concerned with performing laboratory analysis to obtain information necessary for diagnosis, treatment, and maintenance of health.

Alessandra Gillani

First recorded as 'Lab Aid'; associated with a laboratory-acquired death.

Stone to Iron Age

Stone Age: belief in unknown spirits; Bronze Age: disease as punishment by gods; Iron Age: focus on disease prevention and environmental sanitation.

What early public health practice is mentioned in the notes?

Fumigation (pest control) as part of early disease control.

To what period does Vivian Herrick trace the beginning of MT?

Ancient times, specifically around 1500 BC.

Ebers Papyrus (1500 BCE)

Oldest preserved Egyptian medical text; records of intestinal parasitic infections (Ascaris lumbricoides and Taenia spp.).

Ascaris lumbricoides and Taenia spp.

Ascaris lumbricoides: a parasitic roundworm; Taenia spp.: tapeworms (ribbon-like).

What concept did Hippocrates associate with disease?

Imbalance of the four humors.

the four humors?

Blood (sanguis), Yellow bile (khole), Black bile (melaina khole), Phlegm (phlegma).

Rufus of Ephesus; presence of blood in urine.

first described hematuria

diarrhea of urine

How did Galen describe diabetes?

Isaac Judaeus

Author of Kitab al Baul

Urine was the oldest test; urinalysis became commonplace; diagnosis by water casting (uroscopy).

What is the significance of urinalysis in Ruth Williams' view?

Zacharias Janssen and Hans 1590.

invented the microscope

Athanasius Kircher

Blood contained 'worms' observed under the microscope (early microscopist finding).

Marcello Malpighi

Regarded as the founding father of modern anatomical pathology; renowned for embryology and physiology of glands and viscera.

Anton van Leeuwenhoek

Father of microscopy and microbiology; contributed improved microscopes.

Frederick Dekkers

Observed that protein in urine precipitates when boiled with acetic acid; a diagnostic indicator of proteinuria.

Rudolf Virchow

Father of microscopic pathology; established the world’s first pathology laboratory; emphasized cellular manifestation of disease.

Fehling's test (1848)

First quantitative test for reducing sugars in urine.

Glucose, Fructose, Saccharose.

Which sugars are associated with Fehling's test?

John Snow 1854?

Studied the London outbreak(cholera) and linked it to contaminated water.

Louis Pasteur’s key contributions to microbiology

Concepts of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria; vaccine against anthrax; invention of pasteurization.

American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP)

American Society for Clinical Pathology; founded 1922; established ethics code; technicians should work under a physician and not diagnose or direct treatment.

American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science

Originally formed as a subgroup of ASCP; advocates for autonomous non-physician clinical laboratory scientists.

University of Minnesota, in 1923.

Which university first offered a medical technology degree program and when?

MTs pursued government licensure through licensure laws.

What licensure development occurred around 1950 for MTs?

RBH Gradwohl (1920)

Establish schools for training laboratory technicians and an examining board to pass on qualifications.

World War I (1914-1918)

created great demand for technicians; physicians trained assistants to perform tests.

John Kolmer (1918)

National-level certification for medical technologists and the first formal training course.

Henry's Clinical Diagnosis and Management by Laboratory Methods

Book edited by John Bernard Henry; Henry's version of Todd’s Clinical Diagnosis and Management by Laboratory Methods; fundamental reference in laboratory medicine.

Pennsylvania State Legislature (1915)

Required hospitals to have complete laboratory facilities with full-time technicians.

Rockefeller Institute

Founded in 1903 in New York; Simon Flexner headed its clinical laboratory.

James Campbell Todd 1908

wrote Clinical Diagnosis: A Manual of Laboratory Methods describing techniques and procedures.

Johns Hopkins Hospital late 1800s

Opened its clinical laboratory in 1896; ward laboratories established by Dr. William Osler in 1898.

WWilliam Pepper Laboratory of Clinical Medicine (1895)

Established at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania; considered the first legitimate clinical science laboratory in the US.

Massachusetts General Hospital 1847

Chemist-Microscopist role established; 1854 John Bacon Jr.; 1855 Calvin Ellis; early integration of microscopy into diagnosis.

20th-century US tech advancements

Electron microscope, MRI, prosthetic devices.

1816 Stethoscope (Rene Laennec); 1840 Microscope (development for medical use); 1850 Ophthalmoscope (Helmholtz); 1855 Laryngoscope (Manuel Garcia); 1859 X-ray (Roentgen); 1903 Electrocardiograph (Einthoven).

List some early diagnostic instruments by year and inventor.

Spirometer (John Hutchinson) and Sphygmomanometer (Jules Herisson).

What biomedical devices are associated with the era of public health?

Von Ziemssen

described as well-conceived with chemical, physical, and bacteriological departments, a library, and patient examination rooms.