Topic outline

  • Introduction

    Collapse all Expand all
    A medicine is commonly defined as a substance or preparation that can treat or prevent disease. Historically, most medicines were made from natural products. Advances in the last two centuries have led to the introduction of man-made chemical medicines, biologics and gene therapies. In addition, new technologies, such as tissue engineering , which uses living cells to repair tissues or organs, and nanomedicine , which uses tiny ‘nano’ particles in a variety of healthcare settings, have increased the options available.

    These training materials provide short descriptions of the different types of medicine, how they work and how they are developed.

  • Medical Devices and Medicine-Device Combinations

    The spectrum of medical devices ranges from a simple pair of spectacles to improve eyesight, to the technologically complex magnetic resonance imaging (MRI ) machine used to examine organs inside the body. The World Health Organization and European Union definitions of medical devices can be condensed to:

    An article, instrument, apparatus or machine that is used in the prevention, diagnosis or treatment of illness or disease, or for detecting, measuring, restoring, correcting or modifying the structure or function of the body for some health purpose.

    medical device

    Figure 1.     https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Inhaler2.jpg

    Typically, medical devices are used when medicines alone cannot achieve the desired effect. However, medicine/medical-device combinations (often referred to as medicine–device) exist, such as the salbutamol–inhaler combination used by patients with asthma , and the adrenaline–injector combination for the treatment of anaphylaxis (a severe allergic reaction).

    Background

    Medical devices have been in existence for thousands of years. Records show the ancient Egyptians used scalpels, slings, splints and crutches as far back as 7000 BC. Some of the significant milestones in the development of medical devices are shown in Figure 2.

    medical device development

    Figure 2. Timeline of medical device development.