Medical discoveries

Topics represented

Medicine (270) · Nobel laureates (233) · People (233) · Physiology or Medicine (116) · Nobel Prizes (116) · Science (43) · Epidemics & public health (7) · Personas científicas (6) · Roman Empire (3) · Vacunación (3) · VIH/sida (3) · Antirretrovirales (2)

Records and sources

Ordered by start date. Long lives and processes may begin before the period you want to study.

1. 1970

   Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1970

   The 1970 award linked this prize to Sir Bernard Katz, Ulf von Euler and Julius Axelrod. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

2. c. 1971

   Clinical computed tomography

   Computed tomography enables reconstruction of internal slices from X-rays and computation; its first clinical applications date to the early 1970s.

3. 1971

   Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1971

   The 1971 award linked this prize to Earl W. Sutherland, Jr.. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

4. 1972

   Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1972

   The 1972 award linked this prize to Gerald M. Edelman and Rodney R. Porter. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

5. c. 1973

   Magnetic resonance imaging

   The principles of magnetic resonance imaging become a method for medical visualization; clinical and technical development continued for decades.

6. 1973

   Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1973

   The 1973 award linked this prize to Karl von Frisch, Konrad Lorenz and Nikolaas Tinbergen. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

7. 1974

   Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1974

   The 1974 award linked this prize to Albert Claude, Christian de Duve and George E. Palade. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

8. 1975

   Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1975

   The 1975 award linked this prize to David Baltimore, Renato Dulbecco and Howard M. Temin. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

9. 1976

   Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1976

   The 1976 award linked this prize to Baruch S. Blumberg and D. Carleton Gajdusek. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

10. 1977

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1977

    The 1977 award linked this prize to Roger Guillemin, Andrew V. Schally and Rosalyn Yalow. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

11. 1978

    In vitro fertilization

    Louise Brown is born as the first baby conceived through in vitro fertilization, expanding reproductive options.

12. 1978

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1978

    The 1978 award linked this prize to Werner Arber, Daniel Nathans and Hamilton O. Smith. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

13. 1979

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1979

    The 1979 award linked this prize to Allan M. Cormack and Godfrey N. Hounsfield. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

14. 1980

    Smallpox eradicated

    The World Health Assembly declares smallpox eradicated: the first human disease eliminated globally.

15. 1980

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1980

    The 1980 award linked this prize to Baruj Benacerraf, Jean Dausset and George D. Snell. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

16. 1981

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1981

    The 1981 award linked this prize to Roger W. Sperry, David H. Hubel and Torsten N. Wiesel. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

17. 1982

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1982

    The 1982 award linked this prize to Sune K. Bergström, Bengt I. Samuelsson and John R. Vane. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

18. 1983

    HIV identified

    Identification of human immunodeficiency virus accelerates HIV/AIDS diagnosis, research and response.

19. 1983

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1983

    The 1983 award linked this prize to Barbara McClintock. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

20. 1984

    Bhopal chemical disaster

    On the night of 2–3 December 1984, methyl isocyanate was released from a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, causing an acute health emergency and long-lasting consequences. The event made chemical-industrial risk, emergency preparedness, and remediation environmental as well as public-health issues; damage counts and assessments of long-term effects must be read according to method and period.

21. 1984

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1984

    The 1984 award linked this prize to Niels K. Jerne, Georges J.F. Köhler and César Milstein. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

22. 1985–1987

    HIV test and first authorized antiretroviral

    FDA licensed the first HIV test in 1985 and approved zidovudine (AZT) as the first antiretroviral to treat AIDS in 1987. These steps expanded detection and a treatment option, but did not by themselves resolve access, stigma, confidentiality, or treatment inequities.

23. 1985

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1985

    The 1985 award linked this prize to Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

24. 1986

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1986

    The 1986 award linked this prize to Stanley Cohen and Rita Levi-Montalcini. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

25. 1987

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1987

    The 1987 award linked this prize to Susumu Tonegawa. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

26. 1988

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1988

    The 1988 award linked this prize to Sir James W. Black, Gertrude B. Elion and George H. Hitchings. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

27. 1989

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1989

    The 1989 award linked this prize to J. Michael Bishop and Harold E. Varmus. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

28. 1990

    Human Genome Project

    The international collaboration to sequence and map the human genome begins.

29. 1990

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1990

    The 1990 award linked this prize to Joseph E. Murray and E. Donnall Thomas. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.

30. 1991

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1991

    The 1991 award linked this prize to Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann. This event records institutional recognition; it does not date the discovery, work, or action being recognized.