The Biggest Medical Breakthroughs

FAMILY DOCTORS (GENERAL PRACTICIONERS, GPs) IN THE UK

Dr Chris J. is a GP (General Practitioner) in an inner city practice* in one of the UK’s largest cities. The practice has around 10,000 registered patients, ten doctors and four nurses. Around 1,000 of these patients may be seen by the doctors in one week. As part of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), these services are free although some patients pay a fixed price for prescription medicines.

For this week’s UK Working Life profile, we asked Dr J. how GPs’ surgeries are funded in the UK; what type of illnesses they deal with; how their work has changed in recent years; and what challenges the UK’s doctors are currently facing.

GP practices in the UK have three principle sources of income from the National Health Service. Firstly, they receive a sum of money for each registered patient. Secondly, payments are made to the practice based on the additional services they provide, such as childhood injections. Finally, sums of money are given to practices that meet certain government targets. For example, patients with heart failure should all be on a ‘heart failure register’.

So that’s how doctors in the UK provide their services free. But what are the main problems that they treat in an inner city practice like this? Dr J. listed four of the most common types of patients he sees in an average day.

1. Patients suffering from depression and anxiety.

2. Appointments for preventative measures, e.g. managing blood pressure, cholesterol levels, diet, etc.

3. Treatment for minor illnesses such as colds and flu.

4. Patients with chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, lung disease, etc.

So helping people to manage their own lifestyles or preventative medicine is now a central part of a GP’s activities. We also asked Dr J. about other ways in which being a GP has changed in the last decade.

Firstly, as in many jobs, doctors are now held more accountable for the work they do which means having to prepare a lot of documentation for each consultation. In addition, demographics are changing. For example, the population is ageing and there are increasing problems with obesity. Both of these bring new challenges. Also, people are now more informed (or misinformed) about health issues from the Internet and the media. Sometimes patients even come holding newspaper articles about diseases they believe they have.

Finally, there are two main challenges that GPs in the UK are facing. The first is the increasing bureaucracy that is forcing GPs to spend more time looking at their computer screens than talking to patients. This is seen by many GPs as having a negative effect on the traditional doctor-patient relationship. The second is the specialisation of doctors. Increasingly, with doctors in a practice specialising in one area, e.g. diabetes, this can lead to other doctors losing skills in that area.

So do you fancy being a GP in the UK? Prepare for five years at medical school (if you can get a place), several years as a trainee doctor and a number of specialised exams.

*the practice is the place where Doctors work and see their patients

The Biggest Medical Breakthroughs

There have been many advancements in medical history, and some of the biggest medical breakthroughs have been the discovery of penicillin and the discovery of vaccinations for various diseases. The scientific discovery of anesthesia was a monumental medical advancement. The discovery of the x-ray was also a great discovery and medical breakthrough.

One of the biggest medical breakthroughs in the 1920s occurred when British bacteriologist and future Nobel Prize winner made a major, and accidental, discovery in the late 1920s. An experiment he had conducted in his laboratory had unexpectedly gone awry when mold had developed in a Petri dish. Fleming realized the mold had the ability to kill strains of bacteria that he had been cultivating in the experimental dish. His discovery of penicillin was a scientific breakthrough that led to the use of this powerful antibiotic as a means of curing bacterial infection.

The discovery of anesthesia was one of the major medical breakthroughs in the mid-1880s. This medical achievement offered the opportunity for patients to receive major surgery without experiencing physical distress. With local anesthesia, a patient was allowed to remain awake and aware of his surroundings, yet not experience the painful sensation of the surgery. The first uses of local anesthesia, in particular nitrous oxide, were by dentists in the 1840s.

Vaccinations for minimizing or eliminating the risk of serious infectious disease were one of the major medical breakthroughs of the 19th century. In the case of measles, mumps, and chickenpox, the virus's ability to reproduce rapidly is weakened. One or two injections of a live, weakened virus will typically make a person immune for life. Unfortunately, this type is not safe for people with compromised immune systems, such as those suffering with cancer or AIDS. Another strategy is to deactivate a virus by killing it with a chemical. Vaccines of this type include polio, influenza, hepatitis A, and rabies.

Organ transplantation is another of the major medical breakthroughs in modern history. This involves the transplantation of a human organ, such as a kidney, liver, or heart, from a donor to a patient. Organ transplants save the lives of patients worldwide and have succeeded to do so since the 1950s.

Cardiac pacemakers have helped individuals with heart conditions that involve arrhythmias of the heart. The invention of the cardiac pacemaker is considered to be a monumental discovery and one of the most important medical breakthroughs in treating heart patients. The first electrical pacemaker designed for such treatment was invented in the 1950s.

Scientific advancements and medical breakthroughs continue to improve the quality of life for countless individuals all over the world. Medical scientists continue to strive for advancements in treating and curing disease through modern technology and dedication to saving lives. One of the most significant medical breakthroughs which scientists hope to achieve is a cure for cancers which thus far have been considered terminal.

Check the pronunciation of the following terms:

anesthesia /ˌænəsˈθiːziə/ penicillin /ˌpenəˈsɪlɪn/ antibiotic /ˌæntibaɪˈɒtɪk/

surgery /ˈsɜː(r)dʒəri/ vaccination /ˌvæksɪˈneɪʃ(ə)n/ measles /ˈmiːz(ə)lz/

hepatitis /ˌhepəˈtaɪtɪs/ kidney /ˈkɪdni/ Cardiac pacemaker /ˈkɑː(r)diæk ˈpeɪsˌmeɪkə(r)/ arrhythmias /ā-ˈrith-mē-ə/ cancer /ˈkænsə(r)/