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Friday, June 22, 2007

Is War Good for Medicine?

Filed under: Society

This seemingly inappropriate question is posed in the latest Stanford Medicine. The entire summer issue of the magazine, that runs under the byline 'War wounds: Bullets, bandages and breakthroughs', looks at scientific, technological and societal advances that happened during wartime. Examples abound: hastening the mass-production of antibiotics in 1940's and spurring improvements in emergency medicine before and during both World Wars. The report offers a sampling of views on war medicine, "including insights from injured soldiers, doctors who've worked on the front lines, observers such as playwright Anna Deavere Smith and ABC correspondent Bob Woodruff, who was injured covering the Iraq war."

Read: Is war good for medicine?

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replies: 2 comments
Open comments are not moderated, although abusive and vulgar remarks may be deleted. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of Medgadget.com. Please consult our disclaimer.

Although war is good for some types of medicine, the feilds in which a war will impact are becoming increasingly secialised to wars. Antibiotics are in very widespread use, but the number of people who need to seal up wound with superglue, as was used in vietnam, is smaller, and research into stimulants for battlefield use is even less relevant to real live. Prosthetics probably have advanced due to wars. Better to spend some of the millitary budgets on medical research, or on removing red tape on biotech firms. And allow and encourage stem cell research.


Posted by: riri
on June 23, 2007 02:39 AM GMT

As regular readers of this site can attest, the current war in Iraq is impacting the fields of trauma surgery, anesthesia, and psychiatry. While 'war medicine' is unlikely to find a cure for Alzheimer's, it's doing more than just advancing prosthetics research.


Posted by: Nick
on June 23, 2007 09:58 AM GMT

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