During olden times, hospitals and doctors depended on traditional knowledge, passed down from person to person, to diagnose, monitor and treat people suffering from diseases and health conditions. The knowledge that was used during those times was considered realistic, but it always lacked accurate results. Besides lacking results, these processes were slow, taking a long time to provide treatments to patients. The incapacity of traditional medical practices to provide fast and accurate results has led to complications and made matters even worse. As time progressed, advancements were made in medical equipments, allowing for better, quicker, and more efficient treatments.

Medical equipments, from the time they were discovered have been able to save thousands of lives every year. They are a crucial part of medical operations and healthcare and have been used widely from hospitals to clinics, all over the world. These medical apparatus and devices are very crucial in the diagnosis, monitoring or treatment of medical conditions. Without them, the detection and treatment of a certain medical conditions are compromised.

In recent years, there had been major advancements made in medical equipment. The discovery of modern computers has helped a lot in the technological advancements that were done in these modern medical devices. These technological breakthroughs cover a wide array of medical field and treatment including cardiology, neurology, gynecology and reproductive health among others.

One of the recent and most essential advancements made in medical devices is the portable ultrasound machine. With the aid of a smart phone available with ultrasound probe knowledge via USB, this device enables patient data to be sent from remote locales to experts through the phone. In turn, these specialists can further analyze the data that was sent and send back a diagnosis in the quickest time possible.

Prostate cancer, a condition common among many older men can now be treated with the help of an original method of treating growths on the prostate. This method makes use of microwave pulses that are super focused to dissolve the abnormal growth in the prostate area. The newly-discovered gamma cameras have become one of the most helpful tools for the diagnosis of breast cancer. The Brest-specific gamma imaging or BIGS can provide a lot of help in detecting cancer cases, which often go undetected. Another important advancement made is the idea of using microwave in treating certain forms of cancer. This technology involves the use of a skinny needle which is inserted into a tumor that has been found to be cancerous.

There is plenty of medical equipment out there with long complicated names, but I want to highlight a few of them and explain how they first appeared and what miracles they do each and every day in the hospitals around the world.

First of all I want to start with ECG machines. ECG is stands for Electrocardiography and what they do is monitor the heart by using electrodes on the skin and creates a representation of the electrical activity of the heart over a certain period. The ECG machine amplifies the micro electrical changes on the skin that are caused during each beat. It can also determine if certain parts of the heart is damaged and can reliably measure the heart’s pumping ability, which can be used in ultrasound tests. ECG machines where invented in 1872 at ST Bartholomew’s Hospital by Alexander Muirhead. He attached a rope to the wrists of patients to achieve a record of the patient’s heart beating while he was studying for his Doctor of Science. The machines themselves don’t cure or fix but help in a patient diagnosis.

Centrifuges were first invented by an English military engineer Benjamin Robins and were later developed in 1864 by Antonin Prandtl. Antonin used a centrifuge like apparatus to separate cream from milk. It wasn’t until 1879 that Gustaf de Laval made it a commercial application. What a centrifuge does is rotates what ever is put into it at a fixed axis. Its rotated so fast that dense substances separate from the lighter substance. They are used in chemistry, biochemistry and biology when testing on samples and play it part in helping create cures and a better understanding of how our body works. There are many other non-medical uses for it also.

The final piece of medical equipment I’m going to mention is the medical freezer. Process of freezing or chilling items was first invented in the 11th century by a Persian physicist and was developed into an artificial low temperature unit in 1748. It was mainly used to keep ice frozen for many years until about the 1920?s when it turned into a huge commercial venture for home and work. The use of a freezer as a piece of medical equipment is put to use when sample and vaccines need to kept chilled. Also body parts need to be kept frozen so they can still be used. Hearts are transported in freezer boxes as well as severed limbs.