List of important publications in medicine

Foundations
De Materia Medica
 * Author: Pedanius Dioscorides
 * Publication data: De Materia Medica, 50–70
 * Online version: Online version of first volume
 * Description: This five-volume work was a precursor to all modern pharmacopeias. In fact, it remained in use until about 1600, though with some additional commentary and additions from Arabian and Indian sources.
 * Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Impact

The Canon of Medicine
 * Author: Avicenna (Ibn Sina)
 * Publication data: The Canon of Medicine, 980–1027
 * Description: This fourteen-volume medical encyclopedia was the first of its kind and remained the most popular medical textbook in both Europe and the Islamic world up until the 17th century. Among other things, the book is known for the introduction of systematic experimentation and quantification into the study of physiology, and the discovery of contagious diseases.
 * Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Impact

The Principles and Practice of Medicine: Designed for the Use of Practitioners and Students of Medicine
 * Author: William Osler
 * '''Publication data:
 * Online version:
 * Description: First published in 1892 while Osler was Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, this textbook was, in its time, translated into French, German, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish and Chinese. It became the most significant medical textbook of the next 40 years.
 * Importance: Impact

Recent studies
Mortality in relation to smoking: 50 years' observation on male British doctors
 * Authors: R. Doll, R. Peto, J. Boreham, I. Sutherland
 * Publication data: BMJ 2004;328:1519–33.
 * Description: This is the British doctors study. A prospective clinical trial which has been running from 1951 to 2001, and in 1956 provided convincing statistical evidence that tobacco smoking increases the risk of lung cancer.
 * Importance: Impact

Randomized trial of cholesterol lowering in 4444 patients with coronary heart disease: the Scandinavian Simvastatin Survival Study
 * Authors: The Scandinavian Simvastatin Survival Study Group.
 * Publication data: Lancet 1994;344:1383–1389
 * Description: The Scandinavian Simvastatin Survival Study (also known under the abbreviation 4S) is a multicenter clinical trial that was performed in the 1990s in Scandinavia. The objective of the study was to assess the effect of a cholesterol-lowering drug called simvastatin on mortality and morbidity in group of 4444 patients with coronary heart disease, aged between 35 and 70 years. The patients presented with moderate hypercholesterolemia between 5.5 and 8.0 mmol/L. The results of the trial showed that simvastatin had a lowering effect on mortality and morbidity of patients suffering from coronary heart disease.
 * Importance: Impact

Heart Protection Study
 * Authors: Medical Research Council
 * Online version: Research site
 * Description: The Heart Protection Study is a large randomized controlled trial by the Medical Research Council (MRC) in the United Kingdom. It studies the use of statin (simvastatin 40 mg) medication and vitamin supplementation (vitamin E, vitamin C and beta carotene) in patients that are at risk for cardiovascular disease.
 * Importance: Impact

Cardiology
Prophylactic implantation of a defibrillator in patients with myocardial infarction and reduced ejection fraction
 * Authors: Moss AJ, Zareba W, Hall WJ, Klein H, Wilber DJ, Cannom DS, Daubert JP, Higgins SL, Brown MW, Andrews ML; Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial II Investigators.


 * Publication data: N Engl J Med. 2002 Mar 21;346(12):877-83. Epub 2002 Mar 19. (MADIT 2)
 * Description: This study shows that anyone with coronary heart disease and decreased ejection fraction should receive an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator. Applying the recommendation threatens to bankrupt the entire health care industry of the United States with its cost burden  the government (a one-time cost of > $250 billion, with yearly expenditures of about 10% of that).
 * Importance: Impact

Endocrinology
Pancreatic extracts in the treatment of diabetes mellitus


 * Author: Banting FG, Best CH, Collip JB, Campbell WR, Fletcher AA
 * Publication data: Canadian Medical Association Journal 1922;12:141-146.
 * Online version: Online version
 * Description: Banting and Best proved the existence of the hypothetical pancreatic substance termed "insulin" by Sharpey-Schafer.
 * Importance: Topic creator, Breakthrough, Impact

Diabetes mellitus: its differentiation into insulin-sensitive and insulin-insensitive types.


 * Author: Himsworth HP
 * Publication data: Lancet 1936;i:127-130.
 * Online version:
 * Description: Himsworth noted that there are two main types of diabetes, the insulin-depleted (type 1) and the insulin-resistant form (type 2). Insulin resistance is a term and concept of his coinage.
 * Importance: Breakthrough, Impact

Other Fields

 * Anesthesiology
 * Bioethics
 * Clinical chemistry
 * Dermatology
 * Embryology
 * Emergency medicine
 * Gastroenterology
 * General practice
 * General surgery
 * Geriatrics
 * Gynecology
 * Hematology
 * Hospital medicine
 * Hyperbaric medicine
 * Infectious diseases
 * Intensive care medicine
 * Internal medicine
 * Interventional radiology
 * Medical informatics
 * Nephrology
 * Neurology
 * Neurosurgery
 * Nosology
 * Nuclear Medicine
 * Nutrition
 * Obstetrics
 * Oncology
 * Ophthalmology
 * Orthopedic surgery
 * Otolaryngology
 * Pain medicine
 * Palliative care
 * Pediatrics
 * Plastic surgery
 * Psychiatry
 * Public health
 * Pulmonology
 * Radiation therapy
 * Radiology
 * Rheumatology
 * Transfusion medicine
 * Urology
 * Vascular surgery