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"The science fiction method is dissection and reconstruction. You look at the world around you, and take it apart into its components. Then you take some of those components, throw them away, and plug in different ones, start it up and see what happens."
- Frederik Pohl

Bacteria-Destroying Radiation  
  A special beam that created a sterile field for operations.  

Now he began arranging his instruments on a portable worktable. As the last of the cold-pack was drained off by the suction tendrils, Parsons flicked on a high-frequency field and placed the potentials on each side of the cube. The terminals hummed and glowed as the field warmed. Now the inert body was within a zone of bacteria-destroying radiation.
Technovelgy from Dr. Futurity, by Philip K. Dick.
Published by Ace Books in 1960
Additional resources -

Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation is a sterilization method that uses short-wavelength ultraviolet light to destroy micro-organisms. UV has been known to have these properties since the turn of the century (19th, that is).

This alternate cover for the novel shows off the instrument case of future physicians:


(Alternate cover for Dr. Futurity)

Compare to the black bag from The Little Black Bag, by C.M. Kornbluth, published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1950.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Dr. Futurity
  More Ideas and Technology by Philip K. Dick
  Tech news articles related to Dr. Futurity
  Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick

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