Most Important Medical Advance Since 1840: Sanitation in BMJ Poll

From 5-14 January 2007, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) conducted an online poll to decide the most important medical advance since 1840 (the founding year of the BMJ, somewhat pretentious of a cutoff year). From a list initially suggested by BMJ readers, an expert panel chose the top 15, which formed the basis for the vote.

After all votes were tallied, Sanitation emerged as the winner. Although it sounds ho-hum and not as sexy as "vaccines" or "discoverty of DNA", Mackenbach pointed out (source: BMJ) that crowding and disease actually led to a decrease in life expectancy in Britain in the first half of the 19th century until sewage disposal and clean water systems arrived to reverse it. However, 37.7% of the votes casted were from the UK, 24% were members of the general public or the press, according to the BMJ.

Cast your own vote in the EPIDEMIOLOGY FORUM poll about "What is the most important medical advance."

Results of public BMJ poll of the top 15 medical advances since 1840, from over 11,000 votes.