Background Knowledge Flashcards
What are the 4 domains of the Good Medical Practice guide?
1) Knowledge, skills and performance
2) Safety and quality
3) Communication, partnership and teamwork
4) Maintaining trust
What falls under the “knowledge, skills and performance” domain of the GMP guide?
- Make care of the patient your first concern
* Provide a good standard of practice and care
What falls under the “safety and quality” domain of the GMP guide?
- Take prompt action if you think that patient safety, dignity or comfort is being compromised.
- Protect and promote the health of patients and the public.
What falls under the “communication, partnership and teamwork” domain of the GMP guide?
- Treat patients as individuals and respect their dignity.
- Work in partnership with patients.
- Work with colleagues in the ways that best serve patients’ interests.
What falls under the “maintaining trust” domain of the GMP guide?
- Be honest and open and act with integrity.
- Never discriminate unfairly against patients or colleagues.
- Never abuse your patients’ trust in you or the public’s trust in the profession.
Give a quick run-through of medical history.
- Imhotep - First recorded physician in history (an Egyptian)
- Hippocrates - Laid out duties and roles of doctor (Hippocratic Oath)
- Roman Empire - Romans were the first to set up a public health system
- Middle Ages - Introduction of hospitals and medicals, drawing on Greek and Arab knowledge. Authority began to be rejected and humour theory started to be questioned.
- 16th and 17th centuries - Hierarchy emerged among medical specialists. Anatomy developed (first textbook), first ideas of bacteria, first observation of bacteria, first prosthetics, circulation of blood discovered, first blood transfusion.
- 18th century - Better diagnostics (thermometers, etc.), Better therapeutics (scurvy treated with limes, smallpox vaccine), Large gap between old and new treatments, Veterinary science & dentistry split off
- 19th century - Cell theory, Germ theory, Anaesthesia, Antiseptics
- 20th century - Boost in pharmacology, Imaging, Surgery, Artificial organs, Prosthetics, Computers, Understanding of immune system, Genetics
What is cell theory?
- The idea that all living things are made up of cells.
- This came about in the 19th century and was used to demonstrate that changes to cells can cause diseases such as cancer.
What is germ theory?
- This idea replaced miasma theory and stated that microorganisms spread disease by being passed between individuals.
- Until then, most physicians believed that disease-causing germs appeared spontaneously.
- Germ theory was more accepted in the 19th century when John Snow traced cholera back to sewage-contaminated water.
- Specific bacteria were identified as the cause of various diseases.
Describe the discovery of anaesthesia?
- First used in the 19th century, ether was the first true anaesthetic.
- Due to side effects, it was then replaced with chloroform.
Describe the discovery of antiseptics.
- In the 19th century, a Hungarian physician first found that infections could be due to poor hand washing.
- Joseph Lister later reduced death from gangrene by dipping bandages in acid before use.
Describe the advancements in pharmacology in the 20th century.
- Aspirin synthesised at the very end of the 19th century
- In 1909, first antibiotic was used to treat syphilis
- In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, which was effective against multiple diseases. It only became widely available in 1944.
- Vaccines against tetanus, smallpox and polio
- Cortisone, a steroid hormone to reduce inflammation and suppress the immune system response
- Contraceptive pill
- Antipsychotics and antidepressants
- Antiretroviral drugs to combat AIDS
Describe the advancements in imaging in the 20th century.
- 1895 - X-rays
- 1901 - ECG
- 1949 - CT
- 1975 - PET
- Late 1970s - MRI
Describe the advancements in surgery in the 20th century.
- Cardiopulmonary bypass made major heart surgery more routine (due to heart-lung machine in mid-20th century)
- Laparoscopic surgery (in the 1970s) due to flexible endoscopes
Describe the advancement in prosthetics in the 20th century.
• Discovery of plastic and carbon fibre meant that prosthetics could be operated when electronically attached to muscles
What have computers helped to achieve in the 20th century?
- Scanning technology
- Running machines in surgical theatres and intensive care units
- Handling of data on a large scale
- Mapping the human genome
Describe the advancements in immunology in the 20th century.
- Immunisation was brought to the West from Ancient China by Edward Jenner, but no-one understood how it worked until the 20th century
- Phagocytosis and antibodies were both discovered
- Autoimmune diseases were discovered and so were immunosuppressants
- Identification of HIV prompted treatments to be developed, although an AIDS vaccine is yet to be found, since the HIV virus mutates so frequently
Describe the advancements in genetics in the 20th century.
- DNA was first isolated in 1869 by Friedrich Miescher
- Structure of DNA decoded by Watson and Crick in 1953
- Knowledge of DNA structure made it possible to determine the location of each gene
- By the early 21st century, scientists mapped the entire human genome
- This allowed for testing of genetic diseases and the creation of drugs derived from human body chemicals (such as insulin)
- Gene therapy is an avenue of research that would allow abnormal genes to be replaced by normal ones by means of a virus
What year was the NHS founded?
1948
What are the 3 principles on which the NHS was founded?
1) That it met the needs of everyone
2) That it be free at the point of delivery
3) That is be based on clinical need and not ability to pay
Who founded the NHS?
Aneurin Bevan - Labour PM
What is the GP gateway model?
The model used in the NHS by which the access to a specialist is through a GP.
What is primary care?
- The first point of contact in healthcare
* i.e. GP
Are GPs employed by the NHS?
No, they are essentially businesses that are contracted
What is secondary care?
- Care provided by specialists and other health professionals who you are usually referred to by a GP
- i.e. Specialist care in hospitals