Re: Traveller Medicine

>  I originally developed this for "traveller done right".  It's a
>  reasonable foundation for a discussion of how medicine will evolve
>  along the established Traveller TL lines.  It certainly doesn't
>  have any official sanction from GDW, on the other hand, IMO,
>  it is the most reasoned application of what we know and what
>  we can expect.

You're making the same mistake GDW has been doing all along. You're
confusing discovery TL with application TL. For example, you propably
need a good microscope to develop the germ theory of disease, which
would be TL 2-3 (I qualify this because there is a small possibility
that some pre-historic genius could come up with the truth just from
observation of effects). But once you _have_ discovered germs, all you
need to _apply_ it is the ability to boil water. Similarily, anyone
who knows enough to sterilize his instruments will be able to pull
surgery into the practical category (I'm not saying that a TL 1
surgeon won't have more of his appendectomies die on him than a
TL 5 surgeon, but he will have a lot more successes than Earth's TL 1
surgeons had).

The theory category is thus inapplicable in all but the most extreme
circumstances (Interdicted worlds etc.). As for the rest:

> TL  Diagnostics                       Treatment
> 0   none- no                          Binding of wounds,
>     basis for assess-                 simple (unproven)
>     ment of patient                   herbal remedies

      Observation, taking pulse,        Sterile bandages.
      feeling temperature. You          Proven herbal remedies.
      can get some way with just        (Unless you mean
      that. Ancient Chinese doctors     something by 'proven'
      did.                              that I don't realize).


> 1   History taking,                   Trephination,
>     Some physical                     leeching,
>     assessment without                Battlefield surgery
>     standards

      By 'history taking' do you        Reasonable surgery,
      mean medical records? If so,      Antisceptics (at
      agreed. Standards are well-       least I think that
      established.                      is what I mean).



> 2   Physical assess-            Improved surgery,
>     ment, assessment of         some pharmaceuticals,
>     body fluids, e.g.           e.g.digitalis from
>     urine                       foxglove, leeching,
>                                 preventative medicine
>                                 based on empirisism

All this is already possible at TL 1. Microscopes should be possible
by now (The art of lens-grinding was known in Ancient Rome. It just
wasn't used for telescopes and microscopes).

> 3  Stethoscope allows          Early vaccination,
>    listening to organs         cataloging of pharma-
>                               copoeia

An ear trumpet should be possible already at TL 1. A real stethoscope?
I dunno. What TL is rubber tubes? That would depend on the local flora,
wouldn't it? Early vaccination involves infecting animals and draining
serum from them, right? Possible at TL 1.

> 4  Heart arrhythmias,          Anesthesia, antisepsis,
>    lung sounds defined         public sanitation,
>                                Volume replacement
>                                using blood products

Isn't it possible to derive anesthetic substances from herbs? Public
sanitation is not only possible at TL 2, it was used (by the Romans).
Blood typing can be done the moment you know.

> 5  X-ray, early EKGs,         Mass vaccinations,
>    Blood work,                Pharmacology based
>                               organ system response,
>                               crystalloid volume
>                               expanders

X-rays, now, they need a fairly high TL. But remember that electrical
apparatus can be made at a lower TL than we actually discovered it. I
don't know if that would allow X-rays at an earlier TL too. Mass
vaccination is a social question and nothing to do with TL, unless
you're thinking of the problem of bulk production of vaccine.

> 6  EKGs,Viral and             Primitive Prostheses,
>    Bacterial labwork,         Open heart surgery,

How primitive prostheses are you talking about? A wooden leg is TL 0,
an iron hook is TL 1. What makes open heart surgery more hazardous than
other operations? (I know that it is more hazardous, but I don't know
precisely why. What equipment/technique allows open heart surgery, and
are you sure it can't be produced/applied at a lower TL?)


From now on you get into stuff that I can't judge too well. But try
going through it yourself and ask yourself if it can't be applied
at a lower TL once you have the knowledge.



      Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
     [email removed]
- ------------
        "A  subsector  official  pompously states that the
        subsector  armed  forces  have  four Kinunir class
        ships in service,  each with enough troop strength
        to put down any military operations that threathen
        the peace of the Imperium."

                        ---Adventure 1, The Kinunir