Getting better comes with a hefty price tag. With medical treatments getting more expensive and the uninsured growing in numbers, going to a hospital has become more financially painful than ever before. Thankfully, doctors and scientists are teaming up in an effort to bring medicine closer to the less fortunate. Using creativity and resourcefulness, medical practitioners are cleverly challenging the current state of medicine by developing new treatments and technologies that will be more accessible to the masses using everyday materials.

10 Bluetooth Hearing Aids

The ability to hear is a wonderful thing. Sadly, many people don’t have it. It is estimated that around 300 million people around the world suffer from some form of hearing impairment. In the United States alone, as much as 20 percent of the population report some degree of hearing loss. Although the condition is manageable through hearing aids, a lot of people simply can’t afford them. With the device costing up to US$4,000 a pair, spending money on hearing aids just wasn’t an option for many—until now.

Sound World Solutions, a Chicago based company, has created a prototype of hearing aids that use one of the most common technologies today—Bluetooth. It functions just as clearly as other hearing aids, but unlike conventional models, the Bluetooth hearing aids can be easily adjusted using your smartphone. The volume, treble, bass, and all the other sound options of the hearing aids can be attuned with a slide of a finger, eliminating the numerous visits needed to constantly readjust the device. The best part is that, at only US$300, more patients will now be able to afford the ability to hear.

9 Webcam Blood Flow Imaging

A noninvasive way to track blood flow is by the use of Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging (LCSI). This method is essential for treating and studying conditions like migraine and stroke by examining blood flow. To illuminate and capture images of blood flow, LCSI uses laser light and high-grade cameras. These parts are estimated at US$5,000, which is cheaper than most medical equipment but steep for hospitals in less-privileged areas.

To address this problem, researchers at the University of Texas improvised. Using a typical webcam and a laser pointer used in PowerPoint presentations, the researchers were able to create a blood flow imaging system that only costs US$90. When tested and compared with the more expensive device, the MacGyvered one performed just as accurately. The imaging device stands at 5.6 centimeters (2.2 in) and only weighs 25 grams (less than 1 oz), making it much more portable to areas with less medical access.

8 Kanzius RF Therapy

John Kanzius was not a doctor. He was a broadcast engineer from Erie, Pennsylvania who operated a series of FM radio stations across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas. In 2003, shortly after retirement, he was given some of the worst news anyone can hear—he had cancer. During chemo sessions, he noticed that children who also suffered from cancer lost their hair, their smiles, and their overall energy. This depressing sight gave Kanzius an idea.

Knowing little about medicine but much about physics and engineering, he studied the physical mechanics of chemotherapy. He suggested that treating cancer with radio waves—the same waves radio stations use to communicate—could have less harmful effects than radiation therapy. To prove this, he devised a treatment called Kanzius RF Therapy, which uses a device he made from spare parts from his old radio stations.

The device emits radio waves that remove cancer cells without killing the healthier cells in the body, which is a common problem associated with the standard chemo. During laboratory trials, Kanzius RF Therapy was 100 percent effective in removing cancer cells with no harmful side effects. While Kanzius has sadly succumbed to cancer, many doctors are still investigating the potential of the Kanzius RF Therapy and its place in the future of cancer treatment.

7 Acne Medicine For Schizophrenia

For teenagers, there is no greater enemy than the acne. At an age when you desperately want to look attractive, biology interferes and gives you nasty, red marks on your face. Thankfully, there is an array of medication that can be used to treat acne. One of them is minocycline, an antibiotic prescribed for many types of infections and also commonly used for moderate to severe acne problems. For less than US$1 per tablet, teens can easily get rid of their acne and spend more time on their poetry or goth music.

You might think that a medicine for acne wouldn’t go very far. That’s probably what doctors from Japan thought when they prescribed minocycline to schizophrenic patients who had minor infections and unexpectedly found that the drug also alleviated psychotic symptoms in the patients. The drug even showed to be more effective than haloperidol, a strong and expensive anti-psychotic drug. Today, psychiatrists around the world are testing the effectiveness of minocycline for treating schizophrenia across larger populations. The results are promising and have great potential for establishing a cheaper, easier, and better treatment for schizophrenia and other mental disorders.

6 Baby Incubators Made From Car Parts

The principle behind neonatal incubation is simple—newborns, specifically those who are born preterm or with special conditions, need to be kept warm to sustain their lives. However, many hospitals, especially in poor areas, fall short of this simple procedure because they don’t have enough incubators. This results in thousands of babies dying each year from incubator shortage. In Kenya, around 53,000 preterm babies die annually because of a limited number of incubators.

Seeing that number go down is the goal of Massachusetts-based firm Design That Matters. Noticing that cars are more common a technology than incubators, their team decided to create prototypes of fully-functional incubators using discarded car parts. Headlights to provide warmth, dashboard fans for air circulation, and signal lights for incubator alarms are just a few of the features of their cheap incubator design. Since car parts are very common even in developing areas, producing and maintaining these lifesaving devices would be easier and more affordable. Though still on its prototype stages, the car-parts incubator shows a promising future in neonatal care.

5 The Cancer Breathalyzer

Diagnosing cancer is a complicated matter. It is also quite expensive. The median cost of a biopsy is US$5,000 while PET scans range from $850–$4,000. As if having cancer weren’t devastating enough, it also takes a painful toll on the patient’s pockets.

Scientists from Georgia Tech Research Institute have attempted to reduce the expense of diagnosis by developing a device that will detect cancer using a very simple technology—a breathalyzer. The device captures a breath sample from the patient in a container, which is then analyzed for breath volatile organic compounds that are associated with the presence of cancer. In a laboratory trial, the device detected cancer in affected patients 80 percent of the time, making it a potentially viable supplement to our current diagnostic techniques. At US$100 a piece, more indigent patients could have better access to proper diagnosis with the use of this technology.

4 Light For Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease that targets the central nervous system and includes such debilitating symptoms as paralysis and loss of vision. With 2.5 million sufferers worldwide and 200 new diagnoses every week, MS is becoming a bigger challenge to both specialists and patients. While there are a few expensive ways to manage the symptoms of MS, there is currently no cure for the condition. However, scientists believe they have harnessed a force in which a cure may lie—the power of light.

In an exciting discovery headed by Jeri-Anne Lyons and Janis Eells of the University of Wisconsin, early MS symptoms of lab rats were significantly reduced after a period of exposure to a particular wavelength of light called near-infrared. Because near-infrared light is already commonly used in hospitals for other purposes, the researchers are hopeful that further developments in this effective and inexpensive treatment to MS will be available in the future.

3 The Cardboard MRI

The fact that we can take “pictures” of the insides of our bodies is an astounding feat of medicine. Various medical imaging techniques have given us the ability to learn about our bodies with greater precision than ever before. The most popular one, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), has been used over the years to diagnose cancer and many other types of illnesses. However, MRI scans don’t come cheap. The cost of an MRI scan can go up to USD $7,000 depending on which part of your body you need imaged. Additionally, the functions of a standard MRI scanner are limited—lung physiology, for instance, isn’t captured very accurately by the technology.

To address this problem, two Harvard physicists, Matthew Rosen and Ronald Walsworth, have built their own MRI imager that can clearly illuminate our lungs using typical items found in any hardware store. In their improvised imager, a magnetic field is generated by two coils mounted on two metal trellises while wire grids and rings redirect this magnetic field towards the patient. The patient is asked to inhale and suspend a lungful of polarized helium and air for 30 seconds while wearing an antenna made of a rubber-coated cardboard tube wrapped with a coil of wire. With the aid of the magnetic field, the antenna picks up the magnetic spin of the polarized helium, displaying an accurate picture of the gas flow and oxygen absorption of the lungs.

A standard MRI scanner displays protons in water molecules. The problem with this is that the protons inside the body need to be aligned by a very powerful magnet. In Rosen and Walsworth’s cardboard MRI, the helium inhaled by the patient is pre-aligned, allowing the scanner to use a magnet 150 times weaker than that of a conventional MRI. Because holding one’s breath may be difficult for people with lung disorders, the researchers are developing their system to capture the lungs in a shorter period of time. Though the machine has not yet been tested in clinical trials, the success of the prototype hints to a future of more accessible imaging technology.

2 Container Hospitals

With only two doctors per 1,000 people and more than 20 million people living with HIV, Africa is desperate for better access to healthcare, but hospitals don’t just sprout from the ground. A typical three-story hospital that would be considered rather small by American standards costs $17 million to build. Add medical supplies and staffing to the total and you have an insurmountable problem for these impoverished regions.

To solve this crisis, the Chinese government offers an amusing plan. China’s Ministry of Science and Technology developed a system of large containers that can be slotted together like toy blocks to form a fully functional hospital. Each container serves different functions found in a standard hospital, such as clinics and waiting areas for patients. The containers are portable and can easily be brought to areas that are short of medical facilities.

This ingenious idea is not without its challenges, such as the constant stream of electricity and water supply required to power the container hospitals, something that many African countries also lack. However, it is a first step to improving the quality of healthcare in Africa. The first container hospitals will be deployed to Cameroon and Namibia and the Chinese government hopes to give more to other African countries in the near future.

1 Slug Glue

We’ve been stitching wounds since the time of ancient Egypt, but little development has been made in sutures aside from proper sanitation and the materials used since then. While this age-old technique has proven itself useful over the centuries, it comes with plenty of hassles. Sutures are painful, time-consuming, and really expensive. Stitches can cost a patient up to US$500 for a single wound.

How can a primitive procedure be so pricey? Biologists from Ithaca College do not know. What they do know is that there is a potentially cheaper alternative that may be more effective than surgical sutures. In search for a naturally occurring substance that can bind wounds easily, they turned to a bizarre solution—slug slime.

Slugs, the bane of every gardener, produces gel that helps them move around with ease. Their slime sticks to wet surfaces and is also compliant to flexing and bending. These conditions make this unique substance a perfect alternative to medical stitches. While dermal adhesives already exist, this type of wound-binding procedure is barely used because they aren’t very resistant to bodily fluid. With slug slime’s ability to stick to wet surfaces, wounds can now be put back together with ease without the risk of leakage of bodily fluids that commonly results from both stitches and adhesives.

Unlike previous methods, slug glue can potentially be used in any kind of wound—straight or jagged, deep or shallow—without the risk of leakage. Because it can survive many harsh conditions, the researcher calls this glue an “ideal medical adhesive.” The best thing about slug glue is that slugs are hermaphrodites, with some laying up to 500 eggs per year. While an abundance of slugs and their goo might not cheer most people, it means this future advancement to wound treatment will be more available to people.

Asher B is currently in grad school to become a cognitive psychologist. In his spare time, he watches lots of sitcoms and eats lots of ramen. You can send him an email here or follow him on Twitter.

Anyone familiar with privatized healthcare probably knows from experience that the Hippocratic Oath often gives way to hypocrisy in the form of surprisingly high medical bills for simple procedures. But sometimes, healthcare professionals also succumb to the temptation to sidestep government regulations and rake in millions of illegal dollars. And when exploitation becomes that profitable, it can inspire shockingly villainous levels of dishonesty—sometimes even blatant patient endangerment.

10Changing The Definition Of “Sick” To Admit More Patients

With the constant barrage of news stories about all the food additives and household objects that can give us cancer or otherwise damage our health, the last thing we need as a society is another excuse to descend into hypochondria. But even when we do succumb to the urge to treat every itch and hiccup as a symptom of the plague, we should still be able to trust nurses and physicians to set us straight with the proper diagnosis.

Florida-based Health Management Associates saw it differently. With the aid of complex software and a little old-fashioned strong-arming, the for-profit hospital admitted an excess of patients who needed little or no medical attention in order to bill Medicare. Hospital staffers were so eager to treat visitors that an infant whose body temperature registered at 37.1 degrees Celsius (98.7 °F)—one-tenth of a degree higher than the average temperature of 37 degrees (98.6 °F)—was documented as having a fever, resulting in needless and costly medical tests.

But not everyone involved in the hospital ruse was a willing participant. According to a whistle-blower lawsuit filed against the company, it was standard practice to fire physicians who refused to play ball, and administrators with ethical concerns about excessive hospital admissions suffered similar fates. Unfortunately, because of the increasingly convoluted financial affiliations and colossal scales that are coming to characterize groups like Health Management Associates, these kinds of abuses will likely be a persisting nightmare for regulators.

9Delegating Medical Treatments To Unqualified Staffers

Dr. Ravi Sharma was a certified thoracic surgeon who sought to help people lose weight through his Florida-based Life’s Image weight-loss center. And while one might not think of a chest doctor as the first person to run to with a severe case of glut-gut, it’s perfectly reasonable to expect the clinic to at least be staffed with professionals who know how to treat weight-related medical problems.

Unfortunately, Dr. Sharma was too busy being courted by dollar bills to worry about whether the people tending to his patients had any real clue what they were doing. Instead of recruiting certified professionals to perform vein injections and other invasive procedures, Sharma relied on untrained staffers—including an office manager—to do the work. The thoracic surgeon not only didn’t perform the procedures, he wasn’t even present to oversee them. Instead, he often texted the instructions for performing ultrasounds and varicose vein injections to his staff, according to one complaint against him.

To make matters worse, many of the invasive procedures were unnecessary, performed only for the purpose of charging extra money. Sharma, who only saw a few patients himself, sought Medicare payments for the procedures that his untrained assistants performed as well. But everything fell apart when he fired office manager Patti Lovell, who repaid the gesture by exposing Sharma’s indiscretions in a whistle-blower lawsuit. Sharma, however, having learned that money is the best medicine, simply made his troubles disappear by paying the government $400,000 and has since continued to practice medicine without further punishment.

8Exploiting Workers’ Compensation Claims

For the average Joe just looking to make ends meet, a severe workplace injury offers little more than physical agony and the dire prospect of being unable to provide for your family, not to mention the crippling debt of hospital bills. Thankfully, society has provided an invaluable safety net in the form of workers’ compensation, which covers the cost of recuperation from job-related accidents.

However, for orthopedic hospital owner Michael Drobot, workers’ compensation insurance was the unwitting inspiration for a 16-year, $500 million fraud. Through a series of bribes issued to doctors, chiropractors, and other professionals, Drobot’s clinic pulled in scores of patients who were undergoing surgery for work-related spinal injuries. Thanks to this scheme, many injured workers were sometimes sent hundreds of miles away from their homes for their operations instead of being scheduled for surgeries at the most convenient locations.

To ensure that his chicanery went unchecked, Drobot ingratiated himself with California state senator Ronald S. Calderon with the help of $100,000 in blatant bribe money. But since being apprehended, the corrupt hospital owner has done nothing but talk in attempts to reduce his punishment, dragging down Calderon and others in the process.

7Pretending Patients Are Terminally Ill To Get Medicare Funding

Hospices are essentially healthcare purgatories where the terminally ill wait out their final months under the care of staff trained to make their exit as painless as possible. They also happen to reduce hospital expenses and place a smaller financial burden on the Medicare program, which only covers expenses for hospice patients who are diagnosed with six or fewer months to live. Accordingly, hospitals and hospices have a large incentive to identify dying patients who no longer wish to extend their lives.

But between 2001 and 2013, Vistas Hospice Services, America’s largest privatized palliative care service, squandered millions of dollars in Medicare reimbursements on healthy and otherwise ineligible individuals. To promote these deceptive hospice enrollments, Vistas paid bonuses to staffers who played along, all while ignoring doctors’ and nurses’ concerns about the suitability of the care being administered. And in addition to this blatant subsidy abuse, Vistas also improperly identified some patients as suitable for crisis care, a highly expensive recourse reserved for patients who are severely impaired by illness. These bogus expenses were in turn passed off to taxpayers through Medicare reimbursements.

In one of the most telling cases, Vistas charged Medicare $170,000 to provide intensive nursing assistance to a woman who was not only not critically ill, but healthy enough to live on her own and perform household chores. Other patients who were supposedly knocking on death’s door were going to church and attending bingo halls. Because of such wholesale dishonesty, Vistas’s crisis care costs were almost six times that of the national average. These kinds of aberrations tend to attract the attention of the US government, which busted Vistas as part of a multibillion-dollar Medicare fraud investigation.

6Profiting From Dying Patients And Then Abandoning Them To Avoid Associated Costs

As we just observed, the best interests of the sick and dying sometimes take a backseat to the appeal of extended Medicare reimbursements. However, rather than blatantly lying about the condition of their patients like Vistas, many for-profit hospices opt for the more subtle approach of enrolling disproportionately high numbers of dementia sufferers, who sometimes live years longer than expected and—on average—require less care than other typical hospice patients.

The US government attempted to clamp down on this clandestine corruption by setting a $25,000 limit on the amount of money that hospices can receive without having to repay the government. However, numerous for-profit hospices nonetheless exceed their reimbursement caps by 50 percent or more. If they’re still in hot water, they can simply declare bankruptcy to avoid paying large debts, leaving ailing patients and their families to scramble for new providers while taxpayers foot the bill.

In a particularly striking case of this systematic abuse, Sojourn Care Inc. chose to close down after accruing $27 million in debt, then turned around and reopened under a different name. Consequently, the company was able to relinquish all previous legal obligations—which remained with the now defunct Sojourn Care—and then recruited the healthiest patients from its former incarnation in order to profit off them a bit longer. As a result, 180 of Sojourn Care’s 280 former patients were left to struggle, some dying in uncomfortable conditions as a result. The only thing more dispiriting is the fact that all of this is technically legal, meaning that for scores of families, justice may never be served.

5Conning Drug Addicts Into Entering Psychiatric Lockdown

Hardcore drug addicts are among the most desperate souls one can encounter in any society. Whether you sympathize with their struggles or chide them as harbingers of crime and social decay, there’s no denying that they lead lives of physical and mental enslavement at the hands of often deadly substances. So any efforts to help them break the chains of drug dependence should, in theory, be hailed as laudable endeavors.

But in Broward County, Florida, a group of executives overseeing a psychiatric hospital saw fit to provide a different kind of help for substance abusers. Over the course of nine years, the executives paid bribes and doctored documents all in the name of luring drug addicts to their hospital, the Hollywood Pavilion, where the addicts remained locked for weeks on end. But despite the glamorous connotations of its name, the Hollywood Pavilion was far from posh. Instead, patients were stuffed into insect-ridden rooms where they received little or no treatment and were kicked out as soon as their Medicare benefits had been exhausted.

After racking up $67 million in bogus reimbursements by offering empty promises of rehabilitation, the owners, Karen Kallen-Zury and Christian Coloma, received jail terms ranging from 12 to 25 years and were forced to pay millions in restitution. While none of these consequences can undo the injustices wrought against their victims, one can take some comfort in knowing that others in need of rehabilitation can’t be roped in by this toxic deception.

4Performing Fake Surgeries

One of the truly nightmarish aspects of surgery is the abject vulnerability of it. A patient must submit to drug-induced slumber so that a group of strangers can slice them open and proceed to poke, prod, and jostle their delicate innards. Were it not for the fact that this task was left up to highly trained experts, the surgeries would seem like blatant felonies. Unfortunately, some highly trained experts aren’t above behaving like felons.

Take, for example, Dr. Spyros Panos, an orthopedic surgeon at Saint Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, New York. Despite supposedly being fully capable of performing legitimate surgeries on his patients, it appears that the doctor opted to feign operations or perform them with the shoddiest of workmanship. A collection of 250 lawsuits filed by Panos’s former patients details how the surgeon performed excessive surgeries on some patients while not properly completing operations on others. In some cases, he sedated and opened up patients to give the illusion of surgery before sealing them right back up without making a single alteration.

Spanos’s exploits allowed him to schedule up to 22 surgeries per day, nearly 20 times the monthly average of his colleagues. And at least one of his dubious undertakings appears to have led to the death of a patient. While Panos has remained reticent about charges against him, his social media posts and personal blog ironically paint the picture of a doctor who takes patient care seriously. Fortunately for everyone, Spanos has since been convicted and has made a full confession.

3Recruiting The Homeless For Unnecessary Medical Treatment

By now, it’s abundantly clear that medical practitioners will sometimes travel great lengths down the path of dishonesty to make a few extra bucks. But we often expect that people who have dedicated themselves to saving lives will only go so far before succumbing to the pull of the angels on their shoulders. But if such a thing does occur, it certainly didn’t happen in California, where some of its most vulnerable citizens have been turned into fleshly ATM cards by hospital administrators.

A chain of Los Angeles-based medical facilities was caught enticing homeless people to submit to unnecessary medical testing. Lassoed in with miniscule bribes, homeless people were carted off to the hospital to receive second-rate treatment—or no treatment at all—before being loaded into ambulances and dumped in the famously seedy Skid Row. The bogus treatments were in turn billed to Medicaid. In one particularly horrifying instance, a homeless woman received a nitroglycerin patch for a fabricated illness, resulting in a dangerous drop in blood pressure.

All of this was made possible through a series of paid runners who collected and redeposited the homeless “patients.” The impromptu hospital visits accrued more than $16 million for the hospital chain. But the observant eye of Scott Johnson, an employee of Union Rescue Mission, caught on to the bizarre back-and-forth of makeshift homeless shuttles. After Johnson informed the police of the suspicious activity, a lengthy investigation busted the scheme wide open and led to a $16.5 million settlement.

2Unnecessary Chemo Treatments

Anyone with a passing knowledge of chemotherapy probably understands two things: It’s supposed to kill cancer, and the treatment’s side effects include hair loss and general anatomical misery. Because some chemo drugs can cause problems as severe as lung damage and permanent deafness, it’s imperative that the treatment only be administered when necessary.

But we live in a world rife with avoidable suffering, thanks in no small part to oncologist Farid Fata, whose litany of lies includes administering cancer drugs to people who didn’t have cancer. According to a complaint filed by the US government after a thorough FBI investigation, Dr. Fata issued $150 million worth of partially fraudulent Medicare bills over a three-year period. His chosen method of deception was to simply treat patients for the wrong illness or withhold valuable information about less costly alternatives. A nurse employed under Fata reported examining a chart of 40 of his patients and discovering that 95 percent of them were being improperly treated.

In some cases, Fata would write prescriptions for lifelong drug treatment even though curative surgeries were available. But the most shocking infractions involved his willingness to falsely diagnose patients with cancer in order to profit off the ensuing tests and chemotherapy. After finally being apprehended by authorities in 2013, Fata faces massive fines and a decade-long prison sentence.

1Performing Unnecessary, Life-Threatening Surgeries On The Elderly

Like all of the other facilities on this list, Sacred Heart was the site of systematic Medicare fraud at the expense of patients. To perpetrate this multimillion-dollar fraud, hospital administrators not only paid kickbacks to have patients artificially referred to them, but also had ambulances deliver patients to the emergency room to force automatic Medicare billing. They also artificially extended hospital stays and subjected elderly patients to unnecessary operations—sometimes with fatal results.

One of the hospital’s most wanton offenders, Dr. Vittorio Guerriero, reportedly induced breathing complications in at least 28 patients, at which point tracheotomies were required. In the course of performing these invasive procedures, which required holes to be drilled into the victims’ throats, five people died. The entire operation was so corrupt that Sacred Heart was forced to shut down after the authorities seized its financial assets.

A.C. Grimes is not a healthcare professional and can therefore be trusted. Feel free to check out some of his other writings on Cracked.com .

Our understanding of health and healthcare has come a long way from the old days, when the most common treatment for most medical problems was just ‘not worrying about it’. Thanks to the medical advancements of the past few centuries, the average person now knows much more about healthcare than any other time in history.

Not all of that knowledge, however, is accurate. As science and technology improve our understanding of our own bodies faster than we can keep up, some of the old misconceptions refuse to die out. 

10. Burn The Wound

Some of the most persistent myths about healthcare come from movies. Of course, they’re movies and hence supposed to be fictionalized versions of reality, though these misconceptions cause real problems, like during emergency medical situations.

One of them is the notion that in case there’s no hospital nearby, a bleeding wound should be treated by burning it in some way, usually with an iron rod. You’d see it repeated in war movies, medieval fantasies, hospital dramas and many other types of movies, leading so many of us to believe that it’s the best way to bring a serious wound under control.

While burning is actually a legit technique to treat some kind of wounds, it’s usually done by surgeons and higher-level doctors, with delicate instruments and on a much smaller scale. Looking for a large, burning piece of iron to, say, plug an arrow or bullet wound isn’t just unnecessarily overdramatic, but would also make things much worse for the victim. While it’d no doubt stop the bleeding and sterilize the immediate region, it’d create an additional injury; a burn. That could be infected with other, possibly more harmful bacteria and fungi from the air, as burns are highly susceptible to infections. 

The best way to deal with a wound in the absence of a qualified professional is wrapping it in cloth and applying pressure.

9. CPR Works Almost Every Time

CPR is widely thought to be a magic cure for someone passing out for any reason. It shows up quite often in movies, too – someone collapses in the middle of a flight, flight attendant desperately asks if someone knows CPR, someone gets up, claims ‘I do’, and effortlessly resuscitates them back to life.

In reality, CPR almost never works in isolation, as it’s meant to be administered with other techniques. On its own, CPR only works 2% of the time, which is nowhere close to its near-100% success rate shown in movies. Additional studies show the success rate a little higher, but still coming in at only about 10% – still far below what people commonly believe to be the case.

That doesn’t mean it’s useless. While CPR usually doesn’t work on its own and without a specialist, if administered in combination with hospital care, EMS care, supplemental oxygen, etc., it can raise the survival rate to 40%. 

8. You Can Catch An Infection From A Public Toilet

A lot of us avoid using public toilets for the fear of catching unknown diseases, like STDs. It makes evolutionary and hygienic sense, as we’re programmed to avoid places that could harbour harmful pathogens, and public loos certainly qualify.

While it’s true that some public toilets really shouldn’t be used by anyone, the chances of contracting a disease from even the worst of them is – scientifically speaking – very low. Most pathogens we know of can’t survive long enough on most known surfaces to infect the next person. In the off chance that they did survive, the only way they could cause an infection is directly through the urethral or genital tract, or through an open cut or sore. 

7. Apply Ice To Burn Wounds

Applying ice to relieve a burn wound sounds like an intuitive solution. Burns are caused by something really hot, ice is really cold, so they must cancel each other out. That’s probably why so many of us instinctively reach for the refrigerator whenever we get burned, and not the first-aid box.

In reality, the only correct way to properly treat a burn wound until you get medical help is to run it under cool water for 5 – 10 minutes, wash it with soap and then apply an antibiotic, anti-inflammatory cream to minimize chances of an infection. Ice, on the other hand, could make things much worse, as extremely cold temperatures can have the same effect on the skin as burning. 

6. Water Breaking During Childbirth

Childbirth is one of the most widely-misunderstood medical procedures out there, perhaps because so few of us have actually seen it happen in real life. Almost everything we know about it comes from TV shows and movies, and they almost always get it wrong.

While it’s difficult to include all the popular childbirth myths here, we can talk about the most widespread one – the water-breaking process. Unlike how most of us imagine it, it’s not a convenient, reliable trigger of when to rush to the hospital. In many cases, the woman can’t even feel their water breaking – there have been cases of it happening while sleeping, too. 

Unlike the panicking and rushing to the hospital we see in the movies, in reality, it’s perfectly fine to stay at home for a few hours to make the necessary preparations once it happens, as it usually takes a long time for the contractions to start. It’s not uncommon for the water to break in the middle of the labor phase, either, when you’re likely already in the hospital and under proper medical care.  

5. Expiry Dates

The debate around what the expiry date on a medicine or drug actually means has been going on for a while. Pharmaceutical companies maintain that it’s the maximum amount of time they can guarantee the potency and safety of a drug. Research – anecdotal and scientific – however, proves that expiration dates may not matter much, and almost all drugs remain safe and maintain their potency even years after their expiry dates. 

While it’s entirely possible to monitor a drug and its effects after years of being in the market to update its expiration date, drug companies usually have little incentive to do that. On the other hand, expiration dates ensure continued sales, as most people consider expired medicine to be useless and regularly throw it out. 

4. Reading In Dim Light Can Damage The Eyes

Kids are often asked to avoid reading in low light to keep their eyes healthy, as conventional wisdom says that it could cause long-term damage to the eyes. It sort of makes sense – as reading in dim light should do something to the eyes. If we look at the science behind it, though, it turns out to be one of those old-timey myths about general healthcare that have long been debunked.

While reading in dim light for long hours could definitely cause short-term fatigue, dryness or even a mild headache, none of those are major issues. Your eye doctor would still probably advise you against it – as some of those symptoms may require medicine to fix – though there’s no research to suggest that it could be harmful in the long run in any way.

3. You Can Will Your Disease Away

The idea that you can get better with the power of the mind is widespread. Of course, not everyone who believes that thinks that the willpower of the mind is enough to actually kill viruses and bacteria. Though if combined with medicines and proper healthcare, somewhere deep down, many of us believe that ‘positive thinking’ could help fix our medical problems.

Speaking strictly in scientific terms, though, the notion has no basis in reality. While positive thinking can definitely improve the quality of the time spent with the disease, there’s no evidence to suggest that it does anything to alleviate a medical problem. We’re not talking about the placebo effect here, which is a specific phenomenon that works more like medicine than just willing the disease away. 

2. ‘Eat For Two’ During Pregnancy

Pregnant women are often told to double their diet, as they’ve to now ‘eat for two’. It follows the straightforward logic that now that you have another person inside you, you’d obviously need to eat an extra meal to feed them. 

Obviously, that’s not true, as a baby developing inside the womb isn’t the same as another person. While it depends on a few factors, on an average, expecting moms require only about 300 calories more than usual to produce enough nutrients and food for the baby – equivalent to one slice of whole grain bread and one tablespoon of peanut butter. 

Moreover, overeating while pregnant can cause additional health problems, such as gestational diabetes, high blood pressure and back-aches.

1. Fish Oil Is Good For The Heart

Fish oil is widely seen as a great supplement to combat heart problems, as it contains something called omega-3 fatty acids that’re supposed to be good for the heart. Research on the subject, however, has been scarce.If one recent study is to be believed, though, fish oil – and omega-3 fatty acids in general – don’t do anything to reduce the risk of cardiac disease, and may actually be harmful for the heart.

Done on about 13,000 subjects, the researchers found that subjects that were given fish oil had the same risk of experiencing a cardiovascular event – most commonly a heart attack – than those given a placebo. Additionally, 67% of everyone that took fish oil experienced atrial fibrillation, or irregular heartbeats.

Our understanding of health and healthcare has come a long way from the old days, when the most common treatment for most medical problems was just ‘not worrying about it’. Thanks to the medical advancements of the past few centuries, the average person now knows much more about healthcare than any other time in history.

Not all of that knowledge, however, is accurate. As science and technology improve our understanding of our own bodies faster than we can keep up, some of the old misconceptions refuse to die out.

This is an encore of one of our previous lists, as presented by our YouTube host Simon Whistler. Read the full list!

Imagine you’re at the helm of a spaceship, cruising through the universe of healthcare. Out of nowhere, a meteor shower of technology—Artificial Intelligence, to be precise—is fast approaching. This AI stuff, it’s zipping around, altering the course of everything we’ve ever known about healthcare. Feeling a bit edgy? You’re not alone. Many of us are strapped in, watching as these AI meteors streak across our healthcare skies, wondering: where are we headed?

But here’s the thing: It’s perfectly okay to feel a touch of nerves. Change can be intimidating, and this AI revolution? It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Imagine ten different ways AI is revamping our healthcare universe, from predicting health trajectories to managing occupational stress. It’s mind-boggling, right?

But guess what? This journey can also be thrilling. It’s like unwrapping a present and finding a tool that just might reshape our world for the better. So buckle up because we’re about to uncover the ten ways Artificial Intelligence is transforming healthcare. Ready to navigate this brave new world together? Let’s dive right in!

Related: 10 Times Artificial Intelligence Displayed Amazing Abilities

10 Diagnosis Made Easy

Have you ever wondered how doctors unfurl the mysteries of diseases? Lately, a friend named Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been their new aid. AI is revolutionizing the way diseases are diagnosed and treatments are suggested.

Imagine you have an unusual rash. Instead of making your way to a clinic and waiting your turn, you just click a photo and upload it on an AI-powered application. Within seconds, you get a probable diagnosis and treatment suggestion.

AI’s proficiency lies in processing an abundance of medical data and identifying patterns or connections that might elude even seasoned medical professionals. AI doesn’t limit itself to common ailments; it aids in the early detection of intricate conditions like cancer and heart disease, often before symptoms manifest.

AI’s role extends beyond diagnosing to suggesting optimal treatment options. It works like an intelligent medical textbook, continuously updating itself with the latest research, guidelines, and individual patient histories.

While this might sound like a sci-fi plot, this is the reality of present-day healthcare. AI is transforming healthcare to be quicker, more accurate, and highly personalized. However, it’s important to remember AI supports doctors; it doesn’t supersede them. The human touch remains paramount in patient care.^[1]

9 Next-Level Medical Imaging

Remember the thrill of playing “I Spy” as a youngster, straining to detect hidden items within a cluttered image? Medical imaging echoes this activity, except our quest is to unearth clues about your body’s internal workings. With AI in our toolkit, it’s akin to wielding an ultra-powered magnifying glass!

Traditional imaging techniques are undoubtedly effective, but occasionally, they might overlook minute details. This is where AI becomes an invaluable ally, capable of identifying the smallest irregularities in an instant. You might wonder, “Could a machine truly rival the precision of the human eye?” An excellent inquiry!

Here’s the unexpected revelation: AI doesn’t merely match human performance—it frequently surpasses it!

Picture the perplexing “Where’s Waldo” conundrums. AI can pinpoint Waldo, identify his lost shoe, and even discern an ant bearing a leaf three pages prior. In healthcare, this equates to detecting potential issues well before they escalate.

With this advanced medical imaging, we’re not simply engaged in playful games. We’re on a mission to defeat diseases, one scan at a time. To me, that’s truly revolutionary! So, are you prepared for a glimpse into the future of healthcare? Because, my friends, it’s shaping up to be extraordinarily promising!^[2]

8 Personalized Treatment

Remember the childhood game “Telephone,” where the message morphs and distorts as it gets passed along? Imagine experiencing that with your prescription instructions—not ideal, is it? That’s where AI enters the scene, functioning as a super-assistant to enhance patient engagement and adherence to medication.

Picture this: You’re prescribed a new medicine, and remembering the schedule is a bit of a challenge. Suddenly, a buzz from an AI-powered app on your smartphone nudges you—it’s time to take your medication. It’s as if you have a supportive friend right in your pocket, prodding you to maintain your regimen.

Here’s the intriguing part. AI isn’t merely a tool for setting reminders. It has the capacity to learn about you, understand why you might be missing doses, and provide advice to help keep you on course. Forget to take your morning pill due to your night owl tendencies? The app might propose transitioning to an evening dosage instead.

This might seem straightforward, but the potential ramifications are immense. By improving medication adherence, we’re promoting better health outcomes, fewer hospital admissions, and an optimized healthcare system.

What’s more, it’s not just about pills and medicines. AI can encourage individuals to adopt healthier dietary habits, increase physical activity, and manage chronic ailments more effectively. It’s akin to having a personal cheerleader in your pocket, promoting healthier routines, and applauding your progress.

So when your phone buzzes with an AI reminder, bear in mind that it’s more than a simple alert. It’s a sophisticated digital ally, determined to guide you on your journey to improved health. Who would have thought adhering to your medication schedule could become this stimulating?^[3]

7 Accelerating Drug Discovery

The journey to unearth a new drug can resemble an arduous search for a tiny needle hidden within a mammoth-sized haystack. However, AI acts as a powerful catalyst in this process, identifying the appropriate drug swiftly and forecasting imminent advancements using historical data.

Picture AI as a navigational instrument guiding us directly to the coveted prize, significantly reducing wasted time and steering us toward the precise remedy. This transformation is not just a game-changer but, indeed, is a life-altering revolution.^[4]

6 Virtual Health Assistants

Picture this: You’re feeling crummy, but your doctor’s office is closed. What’s a person to do? Enter Virtual Health Assistants (VHAs), your anytime, anywhere buddies. These smart helpers are like mini doctors living in your phone, ready to lend a hand when you feel under the weather.

Now, you might be wondering, “But how can an AI know what’s wrong with me?” Well, it’s simpler than you think. Just like how your dog knows it’s walk time when you grab the leash, these VHAs pick up on patterns. They can piece together symptoms and medical history like a jigsaw puzzle, revealing the complete picture of your health.

Sounds too good to be true? Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re up at 3 am with a fever and a scratchy throat. Instead of panicking, you turn to your VHA. It asks you a few questions, kind of like a virtual chat with a doc. In minutes, it suggests you may have strep throat and advises rest and plenty of fluids. It might even help schedule an appointment with your doctor first thing in the morning. How cool is that?

But here’s the crazy part. These VHAs learn. With every interaction, they get smarter, like a virtual medical detective growing sharper with every case. So, in the future, they might even catch things before you notice the symptoms.

It’s like having a superhero sidekick in your pocket, ever vigilant, ready to keep you on track. Who’d have thought our phones could turn into our own personal health allies?^[5]

5 Robotic Surgeries

Welcome to a world where precision, steadiness, and an uncanny finesse characterize the newest members of the surgical team—robots. These high-tech teammates, under the guidance of human surgeons, maneuver with surgical accuracy that can make even a master watchmaker envious.

Picture a surgeon blessed with superpowers, where the robot becomes an extension of their expertise, changing the face of complex procedures and making the impossible possible. For instance, heart surgery, earlier as precarious as threading a needle in a moving car, can now be performed with consistent stability.

This is the transformative power of robotic surgery, enabling human doctors and robots to collaboratively combat illness.^[6]

4 Remote Patient Monitoring

Science fiction becomes a reality with remote patient monitoring, turning concepts of intergalactic healthcare into everyday experiences. This technology, sort of like having a medical clinic in your pocket, diligently monitors vitals such as heart rate or blood sugar, ensuring round-the-clock supervision.

Your device alerts you of any unusual activities, prompting immediate action—a digital guardian angel, as it were. Furthermore, your doctor can evaluate your health from any location.

It’s high-tech meeting high-care, introducing an entirely new era in personalized healthcare.^[7]

3 Predictive Healthcare

Remember when you were a kid, and you’d dream of having a magic ball that could tell the future? Well, we might not have magic balls, but with AI, we’re pretty close. AI can predict health trajectories. Think of it like a weather forecast but for your body.

Let’s paint a picture. Imagine an AI system scanning through tons of medical data, patient histories, research, and trends. With all that info, it can predict potential health risks you might face in the future. It’s like having a crystal ball that gives you a sneak peek at what could be waiting around the corner.

But wait a minute. Doesn’t that sound a bit scary? Sure, it might be a tad unsettling to think about. But here’s the flip side. If we can see health problems coming before they hit, we can take steps to prevent them or lessen their impact. Kinda cool, right?

So instead of a scary future, think of it as a chance to change the narrative. A chance to say, “Nope, not today, health problem. I saw you coming.” With AI’s predictive analysis, we can get ahead of health issues and help ensure a healthier future. So maybe it’s not a magic ball, but it sure seems magical.^[8]

2 Streamlined Administration

Ever watched a juggler tossing balls in the air, spinning plates, and somehow keeping everything from crashing down? Now, imagine doctors doing the same but with paperwork instead of balls and plates. It’s like they’re part of a never-ending circus act, right? Well, here’s the good news. AI’s stepping in to lend a hand, or maybe a few extra arms, to handle these tasks.

AI’s like that super organized friend we all wish we had. It can take care of scheduling appointments, managing records, and even handling billing. Imagine a system that can sift through mountains of patient records in the blink of an eye, find the right appointment slot in a snap, or handle a bill faster than you can say “administrative burden.” Sounds like a dream come true, doesn’t it?

And here’s something that might surprise you. While AI’s doing all this paper pushing, it’s not just making life easier for healthcare professionals. It’s making healthcare better for everyone. How? Well, when doctors have less paperwork to juggle, they’ve got more time to spend with patients. And that means better care, better health, and a happier, healthier world. So AI’s not just a handy helper—it’s a game-changer in healthcare.
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Next time you’re at the doctor’s office, and things seem to be moving a bit smoother, remember—it could be AI working behind the scenes, helping to keep those healthcare balls in the air.^[9]

1 Overcoming Occupational Stress with AI

In the challenging landscape of healthcare, professionals often grapple with a myriad of tasks, resulting in occupational stress. AI, like a dependable sidekick, steps in to relieve some of this burden. From automating time-consuming paperwork to acting as a smart assistant during surgeries, AI offers healthcare professionals valuable support.

AI’s presence isn’t to sideline our healthcare heroes but to empower them to focus more on patient care. In this light, AI is transforming occupational stress in healthcare, not just as a distant possibility, but as an evolving reality, making the future of healthcare more promising than ever.^[10]

Hesitant? We get it. Change, especially when it comes to your health, can be scary. But imagine a world where stress at work is reduced, new drugs are discovered faster, and surgeries become safer—all thanks to AI. That’s the revolution we’re talking about!

So here’s the deal, folks: AI isn’t the bad guy. It’s your sidekick, your secret weapon in taking control of your health. Ready to make the leap? Start by trying a virtual health assistant or checking out AI-powered imaging the next time you need a check-up. Remember, the future of healthcare is here. Let’s seize it!

Healthcare is always a hot button issue. Some people have it, some can’t afford it, but everyone needs it. So it becomes a little crazy to think that, astonishingly, your beloved, furry, little pets might be getting better medical treatment than you. How does that happen, exactly? Well, since you asked…

10. Vets Make Fewer Referrals

How many doctors does it take to heal a broken bone? If the patient is human, then your General Practitioner will refer you to a different specialist depending on which bone is broken, who (after sending you to a radiologist for x-rays) will turn around and send you to a physical therapist. That is, assuming nothing out of the ordinary is involved. Specialists and GPs alike often refer to the huge variety of education they require to practice medicine, and how impressive and expensive that is.

It is impressive, except that veterinarians have to study the same magnitude of subjects, multiplied by all the many various species of animals Americans like to keep as pets. Simply studying all the various mammals would be challenging enough, but vets routinely provide care to reptiles, amphibians, birds, and even exotic zoo animals replete with claws, jaws, and venoms that make an accidental needle stick at the free clinic seem downright playful by comparison. A given veterinarian will see any number of different species every day, each requiring everything from the standard array of vaccinations to complicated surgery, as well as screening and treating diseases unique to a specific subpopulation of a particular animal—all within the same clinic.

In fact, even if a particular pet or ailment requires a specialist—there are veterinary radiologists, pathologists, and even oncologists (sadly, animals get Cancer too), as well as behavior specialists, psychologists, and nutritionists—they will often be housed in a larger specialty clinic together, so as far as the pet-owner is concerned, they get to talk to the same doctor throughout the whole ordeal. Your dog’s doctor is usually your dog’s dentist, so you seldom get charged for a consultation only to discover that you’ll have to schedule another appointment with a separate vet somewhere else.

Given the crazy variety they must be prepared to handle, it would be understandable if vets came to work with outsized egos, but…

9. Nurses Are Treated as Equals

Do you know the difference between a physician and a nurse? The difference can actually depend on what state you live in, since the various states have different regulations stipulating what nurses can and can’t do. That, and the fact that every nursing specialty and level of education, from an entry-level RN to a Nurse Practitioner who has a freaking doctorate (but never call one “doctor” in earshot of a physician), is expected to carry the same generic “Nurse” title.

Meanwhile, in animal care, there are no nurses per se; Veterinary Technicians (Vet Techs) are perhaps the closest equivalent, but since they provide everything from patient-facing services (check-in, measuring vitals, STUFF) to assisting doctors during surgery, they don’t have to put up with near as much “just a nurse” bullshit. So while physicians grow increasingly whiny in the face of NPs and their ilk providing a growing array of primary care services (in the face of a physician shortage, no less), Vet Techs are treated as indispensable, working alongside Veterinarians in clinics with a greater focus patient care than on their relative status and acclaim.

Come to think of it, self-centeredness is the opposite problem most vets have…

8. If Anything, They Care Too Much

Ever heard of compassion fatigue? That is what happens when you are so emotionally engaged, empathetic, and, well, compassionate toward others (especially those in distress, i.e. patients), that you develop mental and emotional problems. It is also part of the reason why veterinarians have among the highest occupational suicide rate of all professionals: roughly one out of every six veterinarians has contemplated or attempted suicide.

When someone decides to become a vet, it is almost always because they are passionate about animals; not every doctor likes people, but you can bet that every vet has at least one pet. So while veterinary schools are increasingly incorporating training to fight compassion fatigue, medical schools are beginning to address the pervasiveness of the so-called “God Complex” among physicians, reminding them to be more relatable and accessible to their patients.

Certainly, physicians care about their patients—but while physicians enjoy a deferential attitude from their patients, vets seldom get such appreciation from theirs. To continue practicing, vets simply cannot let ego get in the way; among physicians, arrogance is hazard that patients simply have to learn to deal with.

Of course, even the most compassionate physician may not be totally committed to patient health…

7. Every Patient Matters

The sad truth is that, at the hospital, you will receive different care depending on whether you are black or not. America’s long, complicated history of race and inequality means that, unintentional or not, clinicians’ prejudices show up in their care they deliver. When it comes to looking after pets, on the other hand, it doesn’t matter if the vet self-identifies as a Cat Person or a Dog Person; there are just too many varieties of “pet” for vets to get hung up on petty biases.

If a person brings a sick or injured pet in, the stakes couldn’t be higher for vets, and they will perform honest-to-God surgery on a goldfish if that is what it takes. But while Cedric the Goldfish can count on fish-whisperers to come to his rescue in the fight against the Big C, minority patients can’t even count on their doctors to administer as much pain medication as white patients get—even when the patients are children.

You might think that the doctor and patient being the same species would give human clinicians a leg up on their veterinary counterparts, but it turns out, the reverse is true…

6. Empathy Rules the Day

Humans make terrible patients. In the hospital world, patients scam for drugs, misrepresent symptoms, forget key elements of their medical history (like what prescriptions they take or whether they are allergic to latex) and generally present a major obstacle to actual healthcare delivery.

Veterinarians, on the other hand, never have to navigate the nuances of doctor-patient communication, mainly because the average pet can’t communicate using words. So instead of cutting through the bullshit that human patients are constantly shoveling through the hallways of hospitals everywhere they seek care, vets have to learn to read body language, distinguish vocalizations ranging from barks to squawks to whimpers to discern how the pet-patient is feeling, and find ways to mitigate fear and discomfort without being able to employ cold logic or statistics on procedural success rates.

Ultimately, it means that for vets, bedside manner isn’t just what separates competent doctors from great ones; it is a key, complex skill set they all need to master to even have a chance of treating their patients.

5. Insurance is Optional, Not the Root of the Whole System

Yes, pet insurance is a thing. It is especially popular among breeders, who either own purebred dogs and cats for “showing” and specialized training, or who hold genetic lottery tickets like race horses whom they can pimp-out for a lucrative “cover” charge. But unlike in human medicine, where insurance is a federally-endorsed disaster whereby consumers are insulated from the real costs of care, enabling prices skyrocket without oversight or transparency, and ensuring America outspends all other developed nations on healthcare without any apparent correlation in quality or health outcomes—pet insurance works pretty much how it is supposed to.

That is, pet insurance is only necessary for animals with chronic conditions or who otherwise require extensive veterinary care, but isn’t needed for the average pet. That is probably why only 1-3% of pets have any insurance policy, while the Affordable Care Act aspires to get every American citizen insured, lest they go broke trying to pay out-of-pocket for a single visit to the hospital.

Vets are expensive to see, just like doctors—it is just that the system surrounding animal care hasn’t been polluted by bureaucratic interference, partisan grandstanding, and corporate money-grubbing to quite the same extent that human healthcare has.

4. Less Litigation, More Trust

Odd as it may sound, people tend to really trust their veterinarians. Animal docs tend to pay much less for malpractice insurance, because, well, they don’t get sued as often as medical doctors. When they say they’ve done everything possible to save Fido but he dies anyway, people are generally a lot more willing to accept that, unlike when they learn that their doctor or hospital provided anything less than a miracle cure for their self-destructive eating and exercise habits or chronic oldness.

American healthcare is unaffordable in part because clinicians need malpractice insurance to even see patients, driving up the cost of their service; they also wrack up the volume of services—which increases costs—because defensive medicine entails ordering magnitudes of tests and repeat visits, looking at every conceivable medical possibility before actually diagnosing or treating, just to make sure patients have no basis for saying they didn’t receive sufficient care. So while veterinarians pay anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand—depending on what sort of animals they see more of—medical doctors treating homo sapiens pay insurance premiums costing tens of thousands of dollars on the low end.

Bottom line: as a profession, veterinary doctors are more trusted than medical doctors. That comes in handy when it comes to things like disease control, because…

3. Everyone Gets Vaccinated

Lots of animal boarders—that’s doggy daycare—will straight-up refuse to let an animal onto the premises if it doesn’t have its shots. Vaccinations are standard order in the animal care universe, because nobody wants to see nasty viruses mutating and jumping from pets to people and wreaking havoc on the world any more than they want to relive the end of Old Yeller.

There is no nonsense about contradicting medical science with the brilliant preface, “As a mother, I’m concerned about—”. You have a pet? You are getting it vaccinated. Unless—and this is really the only plausible exception—you adopted, in which case, you can bet the agency helping you adopt will make it all too clear that your new family member was already vaccinated, saving you the trouble.

And speaking of distractions missing from animal care that make it just ever so practical compared to human care…

2. Birth Control is Non-Controversial

Birth-control is one of the most common services people get from their vets. Pet owners and vets alike recognize that everyone and everything wants to reproduce—but, in light of limited resources and all, probably shouldn’t do it. In the interest of the health and welfare of the animal—along with the pressing, obvious need to control the stray population—birth control services are standard order, for both male and female pets. It isn’t awkward, it isn’t debated, and it isn’t expensive.

Yet while The Price is Right’s Bob Barker was able to turn “Get your pets spayed or neutered” into his trademark sign-off, you (unfortunately?) never see Wheel of Fortune ending with Pat Sajack reminding viewers to take the pill or get a vasectomy, even though human populations are just as critical—if not more so—than pets’. Try walking into a hospital and asking for some basic reproductive services, and see how far you get before someone reminds you what Jesus wants from your genitals.

The inarguable reality of pet populations is that there simply aren’t enough safe, clean homes to take proper care of all the domestic animals that would exist without some form of birth control—and quality of life is as important as protecting life itself, because while death is unavoidable, suffering doesn’t have to be.

But this attitude, yet again, sets vets apart from their medical counterparts, because…

1. They Acknowledge that Death is Natural

Nothing creates drama in a medical TV show like someone pounding on the chest of an unconscious patient, cursing the heavens and screaming things like, “Don’t you die on me!” Although this may be cartoonish misrepresentation of real medicine, it is sadly reflective of the general attitude held by most of the fine folks treating humans. Namely, Death is the Great Enemy, and any and all action must be taken to fight back against the Dark Infinity, no matter the cost (financial, emotional, physical, ethical, etc.).

In human hospitals, death is never an option: it is literally illegal in almost every state for doctors to even consult, much less intervene with an eye to ending a patient’s life, even at the patient’s request.

But remember how veterinarians struggle to cope with compassion fatigue? That is because they are actively concerned with the holistic wellbeing of their animal patients, and frequently have to make a professional judgement as to whether a patient’s quality of life has reached a point where death is a more compassionate, humane option than any more invasive interventions to keep them alive. What is worse, they often have to explain this reality to distraught pet owners who aren’t ready to see goodbye, even if it means an end to their pet’s suffering. And, contrary to any concerns about desensitization, euthanizing animals is never easy.