last 50 years it's either defibrillation ( ok slightly more than 50 years ago) CT scanning or ' the golden hour' and permissive hypotensive resuscitation
Probably this. Also, the refinement of laparoscopic (keyhole) surgical techniques have got to be up there, though i think they were actually invented a while before that.
Also, if we include public health advancements as well as technological stuff then the anti-smoking campaigns and disease eradication campaigns (eg smallpox and polio) have probably saved the most lives.
In the last 10 years, maybe the HPV vaccine or genetic testing.
All them vaccinations we get now for polio etc. Also, medical advancements in surgery have improved vastly.
The main thing for me though I think would be the number of drugs available on the market now that decrease the need for surgery. Peptic ulcers used to be treated through surgery and now we can use cimetidine to relieve symptoms!
Rising standards in food production/reduction of malnourishment, I'd say. ORT and nutritional supplements - GM food and the like, and if you say that's not a medical advancement then Dod
Not really a medical advancement which has resulted in significant population-wide benefits (yet) imho.
I'd go for improved public health campaigns.
As boring as the answer is I'd have to go for this. In terms of lives saved I'd probably go for the green revolution in agriculture and the impact it had on malnourishment, though hardly a "medical" advancement.
Personally the ability for transplantation of organs from either a live donor or not as the case maybe. It saves the lives of 1000's world wide every year!!
However this wouldn't be possible without the huge developments in MRI, CT, blood culturing, antibiotics, anti viral's, anti-emetics, chemotherapy, the list goes on!!
They're all been great. I've got to agree with the poster that said mapping of the human genome though!
To be honest, we were expecting the human genome project to solve all the questions we had about health and disease, but very, very few questions have been answered, and probably just as many new ones have been asked. Little in the way of medical breakthrough has come from this.
The human genome project was really very anti-climactic, which is why medical scientists roll their eyes whenever the media harps on about how it's going to save the planet