The transforming of American medicine in World War II

At home and overseas, physicians and organized medicine made important contributions to the war effort and in turn were changed by their wartime experiences.

Editorial. Aug. 8, 2005.

This month marks the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. The end came on Aug. 15, 1945, with the surrender of Japan; the destruction of Germany's Nazi regime had been completed two months earlier, on May 8. The war was one of the most momentous events in civilization's history and shaped many of the elements of the world we live in today.

For medicine, and for thousands of American physicians, the war was also a watershed experience. The 1940s, including the postwar period, produced changes in medicine that have never been equaled in such a short period of time.

Most importantly, battlefield care of the wounded improved dramatically. Wounded men received plasma for shock and morphine for pain almost immediately. Wounds were packed with sulfanilamide and other antibacterials, and as the war progressed, the administration of penicillin became routine.

The United States' soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines -- despite the traditional grumbling -- were the best-fed military personnel in history, and emphasis on immunization and improved sanitation greatly reduced the toll from such traditional scourges as diphtheria, cholera, typhoid, dysentery and smallpox.

Yet despite the tireless work of military doctors and nurses, medics and corpsmen, more than 400,000 Americans lost their lives in the conflict.