Book Review: The History and Future of Medical Technology

As we promised you a few weeks ago, here is a review of the recently published The History and Future of Medical Technology, a book that aims to cover the complete history of the evolution of medical technology. It is written by Ira Brodsky, former president of Datacomm Research, who has previously written several books on wireless network technology. The book starts off with the development of the microscope in the late 16th and 17th century by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. It then goes on to describe which developments were made possible by microscopy, including the whole field of microbiology and the art of vaccination. In continuation of this, the next few chapters cover imaging of the body in every possible way, covering endoscopy and computed tomography, only to get back at magnetic resonance imaging and nuclear medicine later in the book. In the meantime the discovery of the ECG by William Einthoven and the development of pacemakers make their appearance in the chapters in between. The rest of the chapters describe a variety of subjects including organ transplantation and replacement, cochlear implants, opthalmological treatments, and many more. In the final chapter an old habit of the author, networks and connectivity, make their appearance showing what is being done and what can be done using wireless technologies, networks and the internet.
The book is written in clear understandable language which is very enjoyable to read. As any book covering such a broad subject, it cannot cover everything, and I found myself searching Wikipedia and Google to find out more on many of the subjects mentioned in the book. Overall it gives a balanced overview of this part of history.
Does it have any deficiencies? Certainly. The first thing that really annoyed me is the amount of small errors which are present in the book. For example, Fahrenheit is described as a Dutch instrument maker, while he actually was a German scientist (with a very German name, indeed). That notwithstanding, he did spend a significant part of his life in Amsterdam and the Hague in the Netherlands and reached some of his greatest scientific achievements while working there. However, if you read a book on history you expect the writer to get these kind of details right and not have to go fact-checking yourself. In an example later in the book when describing cardiac catheterization, the Brachial artery is described as being located in the wrist, which makes the radiologist in me feel very itchy.
The other major weakness of the book is the presentation of the images. The book includes 26 figures which tend to give a somewhat simplified (often a bit too simplified) impression of reality, to give the reader an understanding of how technologies work. However, all of them lack any basic description other than a short figure title. Even in the most simplified drawings this leads the reader to guess at what different arrows and other signs and objects are actually representing, unless you are already fairly familiar with the technology.
All that being said, I would still greatly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading a great overview of the history of medical devices. The book kept me and held my interest until the last page. It is amazing to see how many technologies that we take for granted were developed only in the last few decades. Its weaknesses could easily be overcome in a second edition, but I wouldn’t hold your breath until that appears. It does an impressive job covering such a broad subject in just 332 pages, so much so that I couldn’t discover any great omissions. The book is a bit short on the “future” part of its title, but that of course is what you can already see everyday here at Medgadget. In conclusion, I think it is a great book and a recommended read for every Medgadget addict.
Interview with the author: Changesurfer Radio
Publisher’s page: Telescope books: The History and Future of Medical Technology