Thirty years after graduating from medical school, physician János Kóka, founder of Doktor24, looks back at how radically medicine has changed, and what the next decade may bring.
In a recent Facebook post, János Kóka, a physician, a former economy minister of Hungary, a healthcare expert and founder of the Hungarian digital healthcare service Doktor24, reflected on three decades of medical progress. He graduated from Semmelweis University in Budapest in 1996. His starting point: when he received his degree, metastatic lung cancer, AIDS and adult acute leukaemia were essentially death sentences, and passengers could still smoke on aeroplanes.
A Revolution Under Students’ Noses
Kóka’s years at medical school (1990 to 1996) coincided with a remarkable run of breakthroughs. The first human gene therapy took place in 1990, and in 1991 researchers first watched the living human brain at work using functional MRI. Until 1993, nobody knew microRNAs existed; their discoverers won the Nobel Prize in 2024. The BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, now central to breast cancer risk assessment, were identified in 1994 and 1995.
In 1995, Katalin Karikó was demoted because nobody believed in mRNA. In 1996, Dolly the cloned sheep was born, and the therapy that turned AIDS from a fatal diagnosis into a manageable chronic condition arrived.
What Did Not Yet Exist
PET-CT had not been invented, and mapping the human genome was an unthinkable dream. Solving the structure of a single protein could occupy a research team for years, while today a freely available AI-built database predicts the structures of more than 200 million proteins. Stroke was nursed but not meaningfully treated, there was no HPV vaccine, and the word “microbiome” was unknown.
Lessons That Did Not Survive
The most striking part of the reflection is the list of things students were taught that have since been overturned:
- Beta-blockers in heart failure were forbidden. Today, withholding certain types can amount to malpractice.
- Hormone replacement therapy was believed to protect women’s hearts. It does not.
- The adult brain was thought unable to produce new neurons. In certain regions, it can.
- Margarine was considered healthier than butter, yet it was then full of trans fats.
- Obesity was seen as a matter of willpower. Today it is treated as a hormonal disease, sometimes with medication.
The Next Decade, and 2056
Thirty years brought enormous change, Kóka concludes, but the rise of artificial intelligence will bring even more in the next ten. The founder of Doktor24 closes by asking readers what else they remember from those days, and what we will be smiling about in 2056.
It is a fitting question for patients and professionals alike. Today’s certainties are tomorrow’s footnotes, and medicine’s willingness to revise itself is its greatest strength.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/kokajanos
Disclaimer: This article is an adaptation of János Kóka’s Facebook post, published with his approval. János Kóka is a featured expert of the editorial board of insiderlife.eu. The information provided in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or therapeutic advice. Always seek the advice of a qualified healthcare professional with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment.
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