MedMuseum

Discover (hi)storiesPeople and their histories of medical technology

Company founders, inventors, researchers, doctors, nurses, engineers - everyone of them has a story to tell.

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Stroke – A condition that affects us all

For millennia, humans were powerless to do anything about a stroke. Indeed, effective treatments didn’t emerge until the 1990s. Discover how rapid advances over recent decades have transformed the diagnosis and treatment of strokes.

Varian Clinac 4

Pioneers of radiotherapy

In 2021, Siemens Healthineers and Varian combined to form a single company. But, the shared history that has united these teams with impressive legacies extends back much further. Let's have a look back at a shared history.

Untersuchung eines Patienten am Operationstisch mit Hilfe eines Operationskryptoskops und der Röntgenkugel, 1957

Reinforcements for surgeons – X-rays in the operating room

Our article explains what radiologists and moles have in common, and why the atmosphere in operating rooms could be explosive in the early days of X-ray technology.

Der detailgetreue Nachbau der ersten Röntgenröhre unserer Firmengeschichte.

The story of a very special tube

We presented our tube manufacturers in Rudolstadt with a challenge: This facility – which normally produces modern, high-performance tubes – was tasked with reconstructing our first X-ray tube from 1896. Explore How our colleagues brought a 125-year-old X-ray tube back to life!

Sensis Vibe

On the way to the moon

If you took all of the digital data generated in the healthcare industry up to 2020 and loaded it onto tablets: How tall would the stack be? Explore the history of digitalization in medical technology!

Gewichtssatz grüne Karte

“Röntgen must have gone mad!”

On November 8, 1895, Röntgen turned the world of medicine upside down. At first, many colleagues dismissed his discovery as the trick of a practical joker. Immerse yourself in the fascinating story of how X-rays were discovered!

Röntgen mit Röhre - Deutsches Röntgenmuseum

Probably the most pleasing correspondence in the company’s history

The sender: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen. The subject: X-ray tubes. Curious? Find out more about the early days of X-ray technology at Siemens Healthineers!

„Turn your city pink!“ – Collage nach einem Jahr Kampagne mit tausenden Fotos aus 76 Ländern

The history of mammography

Explore the development from bull-sized X-ray machines to special systems for mammography

Im alten Ägypten glaubte man, dass das Herz im Jenseits gewogen und über ein Leben nach dem Tod entscheiden würde. Darstellung des Totengerichts, ca. 1250 v.Chr.

Matters of the Heart - Examining the heart using X-ray technology

For millennia, the heart was a mystery and even with X-ray technology it was difficult to examine the organ. Find out how it became possible, nonetheless, to visualize the heart down to the last detail.

Die Software Syngo iPilot aus dem Jahre 2006 hilft dem Arzt beispielsweise bei der minimal-invasiven Therapie von Hirngefäßen

A plumber for blood vessels

“If a plumber can do it to pipes, we can do it to blood vessels.” – That was the motto of radiologist Charles Dotter. His “beautifully made” catheters would change medicine forever.

Das Vorserienmodel des CT-Scanners SIRETOM von Siemens im Jahre 1975

A Gentleman´s Crazy Idea

How did a bacon slicer become the inspiration for a new type of 3D X-ray machine? What does this have to do with a record company? The history of computed tomography is full of surprises – read more here.

Ein Einsatzgebiet von mobilen Geräten ist die Zahnmedizin. Die Werbeaufnahme von 1952 zeigt die Röntgenkugel mit dem spitz zulaufenden Dentaltubus.

X-ray Images at 2 Horsepower – How X-rays Went Mobile

Discover what connects mobile X-ray technology with noble horses – and how even extremely heavy CT scanners can be made mobile.

Illustration des Teleview-Systems, 1922

Photography, film, and X-ray technology

How can X-ray images be shown in three dimensions? You will be surprised by the methods from the world of photography and film that have provided our developers with inspiration over the last 125 years.

links: CT-Aufnahme des Schädels mit SIRETOM 1974; rechts:  CT-Aufnahme des Schädels mit dem aktuellen SOMATOm-Modell im Jahr 1983

Our Brain – One of the Biggest Challenges for X-ray Technology

For thousands of years, the 1.4 kilograms of mass inside our skulls 1.4 remained a huge mystery to physicians and philosophers alike. Today, with the help of X-ray imaging we are able to reveal even the tiniest details of the brain’s structure. How did this become possible?

Strahlenschutzanzüge die an Ritterrüstungen erinnern, 1912

Light and Shadow - How we learned to rein in the risks of X-rays

The harmful effects of X-rays were recognized shortly after their discovery, but radiation protection measures were soon developed.

Mevatron 6

The battle against cancer

Shortly after the discovery of the X-rays, their therapeutic potential is also recognized. This opens up unprecedented opportunities, especially in the fight against cancer. Learn how X-rays became a form of treatment.

Multiprogrammable pacemaker 668, 1983

A Lifesaver in a Plastic Cup

Although lives depend on them, they do their job entirely unnoticed: Today’s cardiac pacemakers are generally only slightly larger than a two-euro coin, weigh just a few grams, and are implanted in the patient’s chest wall. Until relatively recently, however, matters were very different.

Echokardiographie MedMuseum Siemens Healthineers

A Honeymoon at Siemens

If, on your honeymoon, you tell your wife that you need to leave her for a while to do some work in an ultrasound research laboratory at Siemens, you really need to have a good reason. Fortunately for Carl Hellmuth Hertz, he had a very good one.
Werner Forßmann mit seiner Frau Elisabeth

A rubber tube to the heart

While slipping quietly through the rooms of the Auguste-Victoria Hospital in the German town of Eberswalde in Brandenburg, the young assistant physician Werner Forssmann (1904-1979) devised a highly unusual experiment – with himself as the subject.
Labor

From uroscopy to large-scale automated lab

Blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile – 2,400 years ago, Hippocrates of Kos, arguably the best-known physician in history, suspected that bodily fluids influenced our health. With his doctrine of the “humors,” he and his followers paved the way for the systematic study of bodily fluids.
Mobile Headset

Mobile headset from yesteryear?

In 1878, Werner von Siemens built a telephone with a horseshoe magnet, considerably improving voice quality compared to the first models. At the same time, it was discovered that many people with hearing loss find it easier to follow a conversation when the signal is amplified through electrical means.
Siemens MedMuseum Electromedicine Pantostat

An electrifying discovery?

From having your hair stand on end to getting a jolt of static electricity – electricity definitely affects the body, and it is even responsible for controlling many bodily functions. It is what causes nerves to communicate, and electrical impulses are what stimulate the muscles.
Siemens MedMuseum Geschichten

The first patient: a bell pepper

It all started out with a bell pepper. In February 1978, Siemens began developing a new technology for medical imaging in Erlangen, a technology that would come to be known today as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).