20th-Century
Medicine
Medicine's
most revolutionary advances have occurred since 1900. By the
end of the 20th century, medical advances helped to increase
the average person's life expectancy by almost 30 years. As
people lived longer, new medical challenges emerged. Heart
disease, cancer, stroke, and other conditions often associated
with aging replaced infectious diseases as the leading causes
of death. Physicians began to devote greater attention to
preventing disease and keeping patients healthy into advanced
age. Biomedical research also shifted focus to the most basic
causes of diseases, including defects in individual genes.
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