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This fun medical trivia quiz has 100 free questions with answers and starts with the easy stuff most people half-remember from school (how many bones an adult has, which organ makes bile, what a cardiologist treats) and works up to the discoveries that changed medicine: Jenner's vaccine, Fleming's mould, Semmelweis and hand-washing, the first heart transplant and the year the WHO was founded. The newest section is hospital trivia: where the word 'hospital' comes from, Florence Nightingale's school at St Thomas', the polio epidemic that produced the first intensive care unit, what 'code blue' means, why Laennec invented the stethoscope, the first ambulances at the siege of Málaga, Johns Hopkins, the Mayo Clinic and Röntgen's X-ray of his wife's hand. It is built as fun health trivia for a mixed room: nursing students, a hospital team social, a health class starter or a family quiz night. Every answer has been checked against a medical reference or encyclopaedia and the source is shown under each explanation, so nothing here is pub-quiz folklore.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which South African surgeon performed the first human-to-human heart transplant, in 1967?
Barnard
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.
Q 02Which organ is considered the largest in the human body?
Skin
Skin is the largest organ, roughly 16 percent of body mass, and the outer covering of the integumentary system.
Q 03A prolonged deficiency of which vitamin is known to cause scurvy?
Vitamin C
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.
Q 04Which condition causes around 60 to 70 percent of dementia cases?
Alzheimer's
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.
Q 05What is the medical term for the surgical removal of the gallbladder?
Cholecystectomy
A cholecystectomy removes the gallbladder, most often because of painful gallstones; since the early 1990s most have been done laparoscopically through small keyhole incisions.
Q 06Which scientist is credited with developing the first successful vaccine, specifically for smallpox?
Edward Jenner
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.
Q 07What is considered the largest internal organ in the human body by weight?
Liver
It is also the body's largest gland, and can regenerate much of its own tissue after injury.
Q 08How many permanent teeth does an adult human usually have?
32
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.
Q 09Who is traditionally credited with inventing the stethoscope in the early 19th century?
René Laennec
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.
Q 10In what year was the World Health Organization (WHO) established?
1948
The World Health Organization (WHO) was established on April 7, 1948, as the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system.
Q 11What figure is widely cited as the average internal human body temperature in Celsius?
37 °C
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.
Q 12A doctor specializing in heart and blood vessel conditions is known as what?
Cardiologist
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.
Q 13Which blood type is the 'universal donor' for red blood cells?
O Negative
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.
Q 21Which drug class dulls pain and swelling by blocking the body's prostaglandin supply?
NSAIDs
NSAIDs such as ibuprofen and naproxen inhibit the COX enzymes that make prostaglandins, the chemicals behind inflammation, pain and fever.
Q 22Which father of germ theory gave his name to the heat-treatment process that makes milk safe?
Louis Pasteur
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.
Q 23Which organ, passed between identical twins in 1954, was the first transplanted successfully?
Kidney
Q 14Which Scottish microbiologist's contaminated petri dish in 1928 yielded penicillin?
Alexander Fleming
A mould contaminating a petri dish was holding back the bacteria around it; what Fleming found in 1928 became the first true antibiotic.
Q 15What is the longest bone in the human body?
Femur
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.
Q 16What is the normal resting heart-rate range for an adult, in beats per minute?
60-100
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.
Q 17Which German physicist discovered X-rays in 1895?
Röntgen
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.
Q 18Which imaging technique uses a strong magnetic field and radio waves to image organs?
MRI
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.
Q 19Which hormone is deficient or ineffective in people with diabetes, leading to high blood sugar levels?
Insulin
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.
Q 20A doctor who specializes in the medical and surgical care of the eyes is known as what?
Ophthalmologist
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.
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.
Q 24At the base of which organ is the pituitary gland located?
Brain
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.
Q 25Which disease did the World Health Organization certify wiped off the planet in 1980?
Smallpox
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.
Q 26The common cold is primarily caused by what type of pathogen?
Virus
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.
Q 27Which artery, the body's largest, carries blood straight out of the left ventricle?
Aorta
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.
Q 28Which ancient Greek physician is traditionally called the 'Father of Medicine'?
Hippocrates
Hippocrates of Kos, active around 400 BC, is credited with the Hippocratic Oath and with humoral theory, which medicine later discarded.
Q 29Which organ under the left ribs filters worn-out red blood cells from the blood?
Spleen
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.
Q 30How many bones are typically in the adult human skeleton?
206
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.