100 Fun Facts About Healthcare

Which South African surgeon performed the first human-to-human heart transplant, in 1967?

Christiaan Barnard performed the first human-to-human heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, on 3 December 1967; patient Louis Washkansky lived 18 days before pneumonia, worsened by anti-rejection drugs, killed him.

Which organ is considered the largest in the human body?

Skin is the largest organ, roughly 16 percent of body mass, and the outer covering of the integumentary system.

A prolonged deficiency of which vitamin is known to cause scurvy?

Scurvy is a disease caused by a severe deficiency of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in the diet. Symptoms can include weakness, fatigue, bleeding gums, and poor wound healing.

Which condition causes around 60 to 70 percent of dementia cases?

Alzheimer's disease accounts for an estimated 60 to 70 percent of dementia cases, per the WHO; it is named for Alois Alzheimer, who described the first case, Auguste Deter, in 1906.

What is the medical term for the surgical removal of the gallbladder?

A cholecystectomy removes the gallbladder, most often because of painful gallstones; since the early 1990s most have been done laparoscopically through small keyhole incisions.

Which scientist is credited with developing the first successful vaccine, specifically for smallpox?

Edward Jenner developed the smallpox vaccine in 1796, observing that milkmaids exposed to cowpox were immune to smallpox. His work laid the foundation for immunology.

What is considered the largest internal organ in the human body by weight?

It is also the body's largest gland, and can regenerate much of its own tissue after injury.

How many permanent teeth does an adult human usually have?

An adult usually has 32 permanent teeth, 16 in the upper jaw and 16 in the lower, including four wisdom teeth; children have 20 milk teeth before them.

Who is traditionally credited with inventing the stethoscope in the early 19th century?

René Laennec, working at Paris's Hôpital Necker in 1816, found that a rolled paper cylinder let him hear a patient's heart more clearly than pressing his ear to her chest.

In what year was the World Health Organization (WHO) established?

The World Health Organization (WHO) was established on April 7, 1948, as the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system.

What figure is widely cited as the average internal human body temperature in Celsius?

The 37 °C (98.6 °F) benchmark comes from Carl Wunderlich's 1868 survey of thousands of patients; the normal range is usually given as 36.5 to 37.5 °C.

A doctor specializing in heart and blood vessel conditions is known as what?

A cardiologist diagnoses and treats heart and blood-vessel disease; cardiology is a sub-specialty of internal medicine, while operations on the heart are left to cardiothoracic surgeons.

Which blood type is the 'universal donor' for red blood cells?

O Negative blood lacks A, B and Rh antigens, so it can go to patients of any type, which makes it vital in emergencies when there is no time to test.

Which Scottish microbiologist's contaminated petri dish in 1928 yielded penicillin?

A mould contaminating a petri dish was holding back the bacteria around it; what Fleming found in 1928 became the first true antibiotic.

What is the longest bone in the human body?

The femur, or thigh bone, is the longest, strongest, and heaviest bone in the human body, playing a crucial role in supporting body weight and facilitating movement.

What is the normal resting heart-rate range for an adult, in beats per minute?

The American Heart Association gives 60-100 beats per minute as the normal adult resting range; a rate below 60 is bradycardia, where trained endurance athletes often sit.

Which German physicist discovered X-rays in 1895?

Wilhelm Röntgen found the rays in November 1895 while experimenting with cathode-ray tubes at Würzburg; in German and several other languages X-rays are called Röntgen rays.

Which imaging technique uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to image organs?

MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) aligns hydrogen nuclei in a strong magnetic field and reads the radio-frequency signals they emit; unlike CT and PET it uses no ionizing radiation.

Which hormone is deficient or ineffective in people with diabetes, leading to high blood sugar levels?

Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that regulates the amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood. In diabetes, the body either doesn't produce enough insulin or can't effectively use the insulin it produces.

A doctor who specializes in the medical and surgical care of the eyes is known as what?

An ophthalmologist is a medical doctor (MD) or a doctor of osteopathic medicine (DO) who specializes in eye and vision care, and is trained to perform eye surgery. Optometrists provide primary vision care but are not medical doctors, and opticians fit and dispense eyeglasses and contact lenses.

Which drug class dulls pain and swelling by blocking the body's prostaglandin supply?

NSAIDs such as ibuprofen and naproxen inhibit the COX enzymes that make prostaglandins, the chemicals behind inflammation, pain and fever.

Which father of germ theory gave his name to the heat-treatment process that makes milk safe?

Louis Pasteur, whose 1860s experiments established germ theory, devised pasteurization, which gently heats milk or wine to kill microbes; he also developed vaccines against rabies and anthrax.

Which organ, passed between identical twins in 1954, was the first transplanted successfully?

Joseph Murray's team at Boston's Peter Bent Brigham Hospital did it on December 23, 1954, moving a kidney from Ronald Herrick to his identical twin Richard.

At the base of which organ is the pituitary gland located?

The pituitary gland, often called the "master gland," is a small, pea-sized endocrine gland located at the base of the brain, directly below the hypothalamus.

Which disease did the World Health Organization certify wiped off the planet in 1980?

Smallpox's last natural case was diagnosed in Somalia in October 1977; the World Health Assembly declared global eradication on 8 May 1980, the first human disease ever wiped out.

The common cold is primarily caused by what type of pathogen?

Colds are caused by viruses: more than 200 strains are involved, with rhinoviruses behind up to 40 percent of cases, which is why no single vaccine exists.

Which artery, the body's largest, carries blood straight out of the left ventricle?

The aorta leaves the left ventricle, arches over the heart and runs down through the chest and abdomen, where it splits into the two common iliac arteries.

Which ancient Greek physician is traditionally called the 'Father of Medicine'?

Hippocrates of Kos, active around 400 BC, is credited with the Hippocratic Oath and with humoral theory, which medicine later discarded.

Which organ under the left ribs filters worn-out red blood cells from the blood?

The spleen, tucked under the left ribs, filters worn-out red blood cells and holds a reserve of platelets and white cells; people can live without it after a splenectomy.

How many bones are typically in the adult human skeleton?

An adult skeleton typically has 206 bones; babies are born with around 270, some of which fuse as they grow, such as the bones of the skull and sacrum.

Which Edinburgh obstetrician introduced chloroform as a surgical anaesthetic in November 1847?

James Young Simpson tested chloroform on himself and two assistants at his Edinburgh dinner table on 4 November 1847 and was using it for childbirth within days.

Which blood component clumps together at the site of a vessel injury to form a clot?

Platelets, also called thrombocytes (Greek for 'clot cells'), stick to a damaged vessel wall and to each other, while clotting factors build a fibrin mesh that holds the plug together.

Which broad group of diseases is defined by uncontrolled cell growth, typically forming tumours that can invade or spread elsewhere?

Cancer is the umbrella term for diseases in which abnormal cells divide without control; they can spread to other parts of the body through the blood and lymph systems.

What is the name of the medical device used to measure blood pressure?

A sphygmomanometer, from the Greek sphygmos for pulse, reads blood pressure in millimetres of mercury with an inflatable cuff; Scipione Riva-Rocci introduced the cuff design in 1896.

Which part of the brain coordinates voluntary movement, balance and posture?

The cerebellum, Latin for 'little brain', fine-tunes movement rather than initiating it; damage produces clumsiness, poor balance and trouble with motor learning.

Which condition was the leading cause of blindness worldwide in 2020?

Cataracts were the leading cause of blindness worldwide in 2020: the Vision Loss Expert Group estimated they accounted for more than a third of roughly 43 million blind people, far ahead of glaucoma.

What medical condition is characterized by persistently high blood pressure?

Hypertension, commonly known as high blood pressure, is a serious medical condition that significantly increases the risks of heart, brain, kidney, and other diseases.

What is the smallest bone in the human body, located in the middle ear?

The stapes, also known as the stirrup, is the smallest bone in the human body and is one of the three ossicles in the middle ear, playing a vital role in hearing.

What protein is responsible for transporting oxygen in the blood?

Hemoglobin carries more than 98% of the body's oxygen, binding it in the lungs and releasing it in the tissues; the rest rides dissolved in the plasma.

Which condition makes bones weak and brittle, and more susceptible to fractures?

Osteoporosis, literally 'porous bone', is the most common reason for fractures among the elderly and is more frequent in older women, whose bone loss accelerates after menopause.

What does the 'M' in the hospital superbug MRSA stand for?

MRSA is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus; methicillin, a penicillin derivative introduced in 1959, was defeated by resistant strains first reported in Britain in 1961.

What is the medical term for localized swelling caused by fluid retention in the body's tissues?

Edema refers to swelling caused by excess fluid trapped in your body's tissues. It can occur in any part of the body but is most common in the legs, feet, and ankles.

Which Hungarian doctor cut childbed fever deaths in 1847 by making Vienna hospital staff wash their hands?

Ignaz Semmelweis ordered chlorinated-lime handwashing at Vienna General Hospital in 1847, cutting maternal deaths on the doctors' ward from about 10 percent to under 2; colleagues largely rejected the idea.

How many chambers does a healthy adult human heart typically have?

The heart's four chambers are two atria that receive blood and two ventricles that discharge it; the muscular left ventricle pumps into the aorta.

What is the medical term for an immune reaction to a normally harmless substance, such as pollen?

An allergy is an immune overreaction to a harmless substance; common triggers include pollen, dust mites, pet dander and foods such as peanuts, and the most severe form is anaphylaxis.

Which infectious disease is caused by a parasite transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito?

Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.

Which organ absorbs most of the remaining water from digested food before waste leaves the body?

The large intestine, about 1.5 metres long, absorbs water and salts from indigestible residue and compacts it into feces; most nutrient absorption happens earlier in the small intestine.

What is the medical term for a sudden interruption of blood supply to part of the brain?

A stroke, sometimes called a 'brain attack', occurs when blood flow to an area of the brain is interrupted, either by a blocked blood vessel (ischemic) or a ruptured one (hemorrhagic). Brain cells begin to die from lack of oxygen.

Which healthcare professional restores movement after injury or surgery through exercise and hands-on techniques?

A physiotherapist, called a physical therapist in the US, rebuilds strength and range of motion with exercise and manual therapy; the role sits among the allied health professions rather than medicine proper.

What diagnostic procedure involves removing a tissue sample from the body for microscopic examination?

A biopsy is a medical procedure that involves taking a tissue or cell sample from the body for examination under a microscope. It is often used to diagnose conditions such as cancer, infections, or inflammatory disorders.

The word 'hospital' comes from the Latin hospes, meaning what?

Latin hospes meant a guest, stranger or host, which is why medieval hospitals were as much almshouses and pilgrim hostels as places of treatment; 'hospitality' and 'hostel' share the root.

Which London hospital housed Florence Nightingale's nursing school, founded in 1860?

The Nightingale Training School opened at St Thomas' Hospital in 1860, paid for by a public subscription fund raised in her honour; the hospital moved to its Lambeth site opposite Parliament in 1871.

Florence Nightingale rose to fame organising care for wounded soldiers during which war?

Nightingale led nurses at the Scutari barracks hospital during the Crimean War (1853-56); she later concluded that most deaths there were caused by poor sanitation rather than wounds.

The world's first intensive care unit was set up in Copenhagen in 1953 during an epidemic of which disease?

During Copenhagen's 1952-53 polio epidemic, anaesthetist Bjørn Ibsen had medical students hand-ventilate paralysed patients around the clock, and in 1953 gathered them into one ward, the first intensive care unit.

Sorting emergency-department patients by how urgently they need care, after a quick check of vital signs, is known by what French-derived term?

Triage decides who is seen first; each patient gets a brief assessment, vital signs and a 'chief complaint' before anything else happens.

Which surgeon coined the trauma 'golden hour' and founded the first US shock-trauma centre?

R Adams Cowley opened the Shock Trauma unit at the University of Maryland in the 1960s and popularised the 'golden hour', the window in which treating severe injury saves the most lives.

Johns Hopkins Hospital, credited with inventing residencies and rounds, opened in 1889 where?

Johns Hopkins Hospital opened in Baltimore on 7 May 1889 on a $7 million bequest from merchant Johns Hopkins, then the largest philanthropic gift in American history; William Osler made bedside rounds its teaching method.

The Mayo Clinic grew from a family practice opened in 1864 in which Minnesota city?

William Worrall Mayo's sons Will and Charlie turned the Rochester, Minnesota practice into a group clinic; Mayo Clinic's headquarters stayed in Rochester, joined by campuses in Florida in 1986 and Arizona in 1987.

Ambulances were first used for emergency transport in 1487 by which army, during the siege of Málaga?

Queen Isabella's Spanish army set up 'ambulancias', wagons and tents that carried and treated the wounded, at the 1487 siege of Málaga; the word comes from Latin ambulare, 'to move about'.

Which Persian physician's Canon of Medicine was a standard European medical text into the 1600s?

Avicenna (Ibn Sina) completed the Canon of Medicine around 1025; translated into Latin in the 12th century, it was taught at universities such as Montpellier and Louvain into the 17th century.

At which hospital did dentist William Morton first publicly demonstrate ether anaesthesia, on 16 October 1846?

Massachusetts General hosted the demonstration in its surgical amphitheatre, now called the Ether Dome, where surgeon John Collins Warren removed a neck tumour from Gilbert Abbott while Morton gave the ether.

Henri Dunant, whose Solferino book led to the Red Cross, shared which inaugural honour in 1901?

Dunant shared the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 with French pacifist Frédéric Passy; he had paid to publish A Memory of Solferino himself in 1862 and mailed it to Europe's leaders.

In many American, Canadian and Australian hospitals, 'code blue' announced over the public-address system means what?

A patient in cardiac arrest is a code blue, while 'code red' usually means fire, though codes vary so much between hospitals that standardised sets have been proposed.

Which Dutch draper first described bacteria, his 'animalcules', through home-made microscopes in 1676?

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek of Delft ground single-lens microscopes magnifying over 200 times and in 1676 reported 'animalcules' from pepper water to the Royal Society, the first description of bacteria.

Whose hand did the discoverer of X-rays photograph in December 1895?

The hand belonged to his wife, Anna Bertha Ludwig, who looked at the image of her bones on 22 December 1895 and said 'I have seen my death'.

The UK's National Health Service was officially launched in 1948 at Park Hospital in Davyhulme, near which city?

Aneurin Bevan launched the NHS at Park Hospital in Davyhulme, on the western edge of Manchester, on 5 July 1948; the hospital was later renamed Trafford General.

Who became the first recipients of US Medicare when Lyndon Johnson signed it into law in July 1965?

Johnson signed the bill at the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, on 30 July 1965, and Harry and Bess Truman were handed Medicare cards number one and two.

Médecins Sans Frontières was founded in 1971 in the aftermath of famine during which war?

A small group of French doctors and journalists founded MSF in December 1971 after working in Biafra during the Nigerian Civil War; it won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.

In which year did Jean-Louis Prévost and Frédéric Batelli of Geneva first demonstrate defibrillation?

In 1899 Prévost and Batelli showed in dogs that a small electric shock could trigger ventricular fibrillation and a larger one could stop it; Claude Beck performed the first successful human defibrillation in 1947.

How deep should adult chest compressions be during CPR?

Guidelines since 2015 call for adult compressions 5 to 6 cm deep (about 2 to 2.4 inches) at 100 to 120 per minute, with or without rescue breaths.

Louise Brown, the first baby conceived by IVF, was born in 1978 in which English town?

She was delivered by planned caesarean at Oldham General Hospital. Her sister Natalie, also an IVF baby, later became the first IVF-conceived person to give birth herself.

Who in 1849 became the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States?

Elizabeth Blackwell's admission to Geneva Medical College in New York was put to a vote of the all-male students, who reportedly approved it as a joke; she graduated first in her class in January 1849.

Karl Landsteiner identified the A, B and O blood groups in which year?

Landsteiner described the A, B and C (later O) groups in a 1901 paper in Vienna; his colleagues added AB the next year, and he received the 1930 Nobel Prize for the work.

Dutch physiologist Willem Einthoven won the 1924 Nobel Prize for inventing which device?

Einthoven's electrocardiograph used a string galvanometer, a thin wire filament between powerful electromagnets, to trace the heart's tiny currents; the P, Q, R, S and T wave labels are his.

Willem Kolff built the first working dialysis machine in 1943 in which occupied country?

Kolff assembled the rotating-drum device in Kampen, in the German-occupied Netherlands, from sausage casings, juice cans and a washing-machine drum; he later helped develop artificial hearts in the US.

Arne Larsson got the world's first fully implantable pacemaker in 1958 in which country?

The operation took place at Sweden's Karolinska Institute in Solna on 8 October 1958, with a device by Rune Elmqvist and surgeon Åke Senning; the first unit failed within hours, and Larsson went through 26 pacemakers.

Which German chancellor's 1883 Sickness Insurance Bill pioneered state health cover?

Employers paid one-third of the cost and workers two-thirds. Bismarck, no socialist, pushed the programme partly to undercut the appeal of the Social Democrats among industrial labourers.

Godfrey Hounsfield, Nobel co-winner for the CT scanner, spent his career at which firm?

EMI, far better known as the Beatles' record label, employed Hounsfield from 1951, first on radar and guided weapons; the Hounsfield unit scale of radiodensity used on every CT scan is named for him.

John Snow gave Queen Victoria chloroform in 1853 during the birth of which child?

Snow gave chloroform for Prince Leopold's birth on 7 April 1853, when many physicians and some clergy still called pain relief in childbirth unnatural; the Queen asked for it again for Beatrice in 1857.

Joseph Lister pioneered antiseptic surgery in 1860s Glasgow using which steriliser?

Lister had read that carbolic acid was being used to treat sewage in Carlisle. The mouthwash Listerine was later named in his honour, though he had nothing to do with it.

The American Red Cross first met officially, at Clara Barton's home, in which year?

The American Red Cross was founded at a meeting at Barton's Washington home on 21 May 1881; she had nursed Civil War soldiers without formal training and, at 59, became its first president.

Ebola takes its name from a river in which present-day country?

The 1976 outbreak began in the village of Yambuku in what was then Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo; researchers reportedly chose the nearby river's name to avoid stigmatising the village itself.

FDA reviewer Frances Kelsey is celebrated for refusing to approve which drug?

Thalidomide, a sedative already sold in Europe, caused thousands of severe birth defects; Kelsey held up its US approval in 1960-61, and President Kennedy gave her the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service in 1962.

Isabelle Dinoire received the world's first partial face transplant in 2005, after her dog mauled her, in which country?

Surgeons in Amiens, France, spent 15 hours transplanting a donor's nose, lips and chin on 27 November 2005 after Dinoire's pet dog mauled her while she was unconscious; she died in 2016.

Earle Dickson invented the Band-Aid in 1920 for his wife while employed by which company?

Josephine Dickson kept cutting and burning herself while cooking, so Earle stuck gauze to strips of surgical tape she could apply one-handed; Johnson & Johnson took the idea to market and later made him a vice-president.

Which German firm named Aspirin and began selling it worldwide in the late 1890s?

The name blends a(cetyl) with Spirsaure, the German word for the meadowsweet plant from which salicylic acid was first isolated. Bayer lost its trademark in several countries after the First World War.

Which medical journal was founded in 1823 by English surgeon Thomas Wakley?

Wakley named The Lancet after the small surgical blade and used it to attack nepotism and incompetence in London's medical establishment; early issues reprinted lectures that students otherwise paid to hear.

Which US body's 1902 insignia popularised the two-snake caduceus as a symbol of healing?

The US Army Medical Corps adopted the caduceus, the winged staff of Hermes, as its insignia in 1902; the traditional symbol of healing is the Rod of Asclepius, which carries a single serpent and no wings.

Which English nurse-turned-doctor is credited with starting the modern hospice movement?

Cicely Saunders opened St Christopher's Hospice in south London in 1967, seeded by 500 pounds left to her in 1948 by David Tasma, a dying Polish refugee who asked to be 'a window in your home'.

The first pulse oximeter was developed in 1972 by bioengineers working in which country?

Takuo Aoyagi and Michio Kishi at Nihon Kohden in Japan compared red and infrared light absorbed by pulsing blood; their ear-probe OLV-5100, released in 1975, was the first pulse oximeter manufactured.

The UK's 999, the world's oldest emergency call number, was introduced in which year?

999 went live in London on 30 June 1937 after a 1935 house fire in Wimpole Street killed five women; a neighbour had been left queuing at the telephone exchange while trying to reach the fire brigade.

In which year did Mary Eliza Mahoney become the first Black US nursing-school graduate?

Mahoney graduated in August 1879 from the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston, one of only a handful of her intake to finish the 16-month course; the American Nurses Association's Mary Mahoney Award is named for her.

The Apgar score, devised in 1952 by anesthesiologist Virginia Apgar, assesses whom?

Newborn babies are scored 0 to 2 on each of five criteria at one and five minutes after birth; the backronym Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, Respiration was coined later to fit her surname.

The BCG vaccine, named for Calmette and Guerin, is primarily used against which disease?

BCG is a live attenuated strain of Mycobacterium bovis, the cattle cousin of the tuberculosis bacterium, first given to a human in 1921; it is also instilled into the bladder to treat early bladder cancer.

Emil von Behring won the first-ever Nobel in Medicine for serum therapy against what?

Behring's diphtheria antitoxin, announced with Shibasaburo Kitasato in 1890 and produced by immunising horses, won the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1901; Kitasato was passed over.

William Harvey's 1628 treatise De Motu Cordis was the first full account of what?

Harvey's De Motu Cordis, published in Frankfurt in 1628, described the circulation of the blood, pumped by the heart round a closed circuit; rivals mocked it, though he was physician to James I and Charles I.

Henry Heimlich first published his abdominal-thrust technique for choking in which year?

The article appeared in June 1974 in the magazine Emergency Medicine under the title 'Pop Goes the Café Coronary'; Heimlich said he used the manoeuvre himself at 96 to save a fellow resident at his retirement home.

Theodor Kocher, first surgeon to win a Nobel, was honoured in 1909 for work on what gland?

Kocher's prize was for thyroid surgery: the Swiss surgeon cut the death rate of goitre operations from around 13 percent to well under 1; the Kocher forceps and a type of incision also carry his name.

Dentist Horace Wells pioneered which anaesthetic after seeing a stage show in 1844?

The day after seeing a clerk hurt himself painlessly under nitrous oxide at Gardner Colton's laughing-gas show in Hartford, Wells had his own wisdom tooth pulled while inhaling it; he refused to patent the idea.

Vesalius's 1543 anatomy book De Humani Corporis Fabrica overturned which ancient author?

Galen had dissected animals, not humans, and Vesalius found hundreds of his errors by dissecting bodies himself; Vesalius was only 28 when the lavishly illustrated work, in seven books, appeared in Basel.