Medical Breakthroughs – Time Continues And The Inventions Increase

Medical Patents Broker Inc.
By Kenneth Pearce, President

Part 2 of 3 –Medicine to the Masses

The Great Depression: The Systemic Shift

Many people were taught the October 1929 New York market crash was the beginning of the Great Depression. Maybe or maybe not. Many of the companies listed on the New York Exchange prospered for subsequent decades until they finally closed their doors or were acquired. Behind the scenes, a closer look reveals that there was a plethora of smaller banks that locked their doors. Imagine a bank telling you that your $10,000 balance—a small fortune then—was gone in a heartbeat! Massive amounts of money held by companies and individuals – just vanished! This was the Great Depression.

Due to the lack of funds, hospitals needed cash to operate, and the Blue Cross company offered medical insurance that assisted both the hospitals and the patients.

More importantly, Gerhard Domagk, of IG Farben, invented the Sulfonamides. These drugs were the physician’s new army against infectious and potentially deadly diseases. Domagk was awarded a Nobel Prize for his invention.

Today other pharmaceuticals have replaced those early antibiotics, but forms of Blue Cross insurance still exist.

World War II: The Industrial Miracle

Thus far, World War II is the war that killed, impoverished and destroyed the most.

Invented during the Roaring Twenties, Penicillin was mass produced for the first time during World War II. It’s good thing because large scale wars always increase sickness in the population while diminishing the medical supply chain.

Fortunately for the wounded, Dr. Charles Drew pioneered blood plasma storage and transfusion logistics. On the battlefield, soldiers could be treated for shock in seconds by adding potable water to the dried plasma. After a decades long hiatus, the plasma pack is back. Today, all Army 68W Combat Medic Specialists carry a modern version of Dr. Drew’s plasma.

Based on our human pattern, I do not know when, but there will be a third world war where the dried plasma is needed more than ever. Despite the wars, medicine just keeps marching on!

The 1950s: 57 Chevy, Heart-Lung Machine And A Domino Dot

After World War II, the American manufacturing machine shifted from war production to a consumer boom. Everything from kitchen sinks to the iconic '57 Chevy—a car that can cost 50 times its original sticker price today. Our migration to the suburbs began.

On May 6, 1953, Dr. John Heysham Gibbon, Jr.’s heart-lung machine treated its first patient, marking the world’s first successful open-heart surgery using cardiopulmonary bypass. From Cape Town to Houston, this machine revolutionized surgical infrastructure. Today, it’s a standard asset in any trauma hospital.

For the human race, the real deal came in 1955 with Dr. Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine. Syringes were mobilized globally, and the battle against polio was on. For the oral Dr. Albert Sabin’s oral vaccine, I remember standing in line at my elementary school on a Sunday afternoon. A pill cup with a Domino dot “sugar cube”, no needles, no pain, just lifelong immunity! If medical treatments were always this painless and simple, patient compliance would skyrocket. 

Ironically, despite saving millions, neither Dr. Salk nor Dr. Sabin were awarded a Nobel Prize.

The Space Race: Wireless But Not Clueless

Although marketing has trained us to believe Mr. Marconi invented the radio, the courts decided it was Mr. Tesla who created the radio. Regardless of who we believe, neither one of them could have anticipated Swigert’s radio message, "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here" or Lovell’s confirmation, "Houston, we've had a problem."

I was not there, but I suspect the Mission Control monitored a spike in blood pressures as the astronauts communicated with Houston. Prior to launch, NASA created wireless biotelemetry to monitor the vitals of the weightless crew. Whether on the moon or in the office next door, Mission control was aware of heart beats.

Today, that primitive technology is morphing into consumer smart phones that transmit patient parameters to a remote location. We are not there yet, but the possibility would seem like a miracle to Tesla and Marconi.