The impact of war and technology on surgery and health

World War one sped up developments in surgery, health and medicine that would probably have happened anyway. For example, scientists had been working on blood transfusions for many years, but the amount of blood needed by soldiers in the war meant that scientists worked even harder to make blood transfusions a success. X-rays had been discovered in 1895, but it was during world war one that x-ray technology became really important.

Blood transfusions- advances in storing blood in the years after the first world war meant it could be kept fresh and usable for longer. This led to the British National Blood Transfusion Service opening in 1938. Large blood banks…