When the topic of creativity comes up, for most people, the conversation would normally involve art or music. But when I think of creativity, I think of the incredible world of medicine. In this research paper, I argue that creativity isn't just limited to the world of art and literature, but rather it is extremely important even in the medical field. Many advancements have been made in the medical field due to an individual’s discovery or innovative idea. I want to bring awareness to the importance of creativity in the medical field and how it plays a crucial role in the future of medicine. Innovations like the MRI or Gleevec, and the events leading up to the complete eradication of Smallpox, are just a handful of some of the most incredible life-saving medical breakthroughs in modern history. In the world of medicine, peoples creativity has and continues to save thousands of lives everyday, all, one creative idea at a time.
When I began my research, I figured, what better way to start digging in than to hear what a professional has to say. So I contacted Dr. Diana Port, Pharm.D., a Pharmacist in Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus, New Jersey. I asked her to tell me the first thing that came to her mind when I told her the following two words: ‘Creativity’ and ‘Medicine’. Barely finishing my sentence, she answered me with one, Gleevec. She explained to me that in 2001, the FDA approved of a cancer-fighting drug, which would later be called Gleevec for the treatment of Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML). When the drug first came out, people were literally calling it names like “The Silver Bullet” or “The Miracle Drug” because of how amazing it was (Pray).
It all began when Dr. Brian J. Druker, a physician-scientist at the Oregon Health & Science University, decided that he was going to devote his life to finding a cure to cancer. At the time, pharmaceutical companies weren't interested in making drugs that would inhibit kinases, because they felt that there were too many kinases in the body to tackle. In simple terms, a kinase is pretty much a mechanism in our body that transmits signals, in the sense that in order for something to happen in our body, these microscopic proteins need to be activated. There were major researches and experiments performed on how kinases worked, but scientists still believed that this wasn't the right route to tackle the dreadful disease. The overall general belief at the time, was that kinases were not the solution to fighting cancer. But the determined and tenacious Brian Druker was by no means fazed by all the talk amongst the Scientists and Doctors. CML is caused by a small piece of a person's chromosome relocating itself on another chromosome, and in effect, it causes a person to develop the dreadful disease. Druker figured that since the disease is caused by a single faulty chromosome, it gives scientists only one target to go after. With this in mind, he realized that he would, in fact, be able to use a kinase...
