We know that frontline workers take the cake on being modern-day heroes. Still, most of us ignore the numerous ways that medical professionals have taken strides to improve and save lives throughout history. From the iconic nurse Florence Nightingale to Edward Jenner to modern heroes such as Jonas Salk, medical professionals are truly amazing! 

To update your list of influential people in the medical industry, we have put together a list of modern-day heroes who have significantly contributed to the medical profession as of late — many of which you might not know!

We hope you enjoy learning about them and their continued efforts to make the world healthier, safer, and happier.

To you and them, we say thank you.

Know Your Modern-Day Nurse Heroes

From helping in mental health to leading the way to new modern medicine, these individuals are the new faces of medical history:

Brain Trauma: Dr. Ann McKee

We have all seen the Concussion movie, in which Will Smith portrays Dr. Bennet Omalu, a forensic pathologist who advocates for players’ brain safety, fighting against the National Football League. 

Dr. Ann McKee takes that fight further into the future by creating the 2015 “McKee criteria” that has improved the definitive diagnostic for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease common to patients with repeated head trauma injuries, like football players. 

Her studies suggest that the head trauma (hits) itself, not the concussions, is the underlying cause of CTE. For this work, she was named one of the 2018 TIME 100.

Birth Safety: Angie Truesdale

Did you know that the United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed nation, with black mothers most affected?

Angie Truesdale’s career has been devoted to changing that statistic. At the Centering Healthcare Institute CEO, she has launched multiple programs, including the expansion of the “Centering Pregnancy prenatal care program,” which aims to improve birth outcomes for underserved communities. 

Child Nutrition: Betii Wiggins

Health starts proactively, most times with how we treat our bodies, including the food we eat. Betii Wiggins is helping children start a healthy lifestyle early by taking on school lunch programs. 

In Detroit public schools, she has sourced 40% of food locally and made her district the first to offer free breakfast to every student. Now, as an officer of nutrition services in Houston, she’s working with the Texas Department of Agriculture and other organizations to bring healthy meals to more than 215,000 children.

Cancer Research: James P. Allison and Dr. Tasuku Honjo

Cancer is a glaring disease that kills millions of people every year and is one of humanity’s most significant health challenges. 

Taking the idea that our own bodies can fight back, immunologists James P. Allison and Dr. Tasuki Honjo earned the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery that the immune system can be rewired to attack certain cancers.

By stimulating the inherent ability of our immune system to attack tumor cells, they have established an entirely new principle for cancer therapy. 

Organ Donation: Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte

With a steep decline of organ donors within the past few years, Izpisua Belmonte is taking a proactive — and to some ethically controversial — approach to the shortage by looking at stem cell growth.  

His research is looking into growing human cells in animal embryos to produce hybrid organ tissues, which can then be transplanted into people. This new research is the first step in new tissue technology that does not rely on human donors. 

Modernized Medical Marijuana: Dr. Orrin Devinsky

New modernized medicine is reaching all-time “highs,” and Dr. Orrin Devinsky is looking into how medical marijuana can be vital to treating many ailments. 

Dr. Devinksy’s research found that purified CBD, a compound in marijuana, can reduce patients’ seizure frequency without making them high. The use of this research can help the use of medical marijuana become more mainstream in painkiller, seizure, and mental health uses. 

Thirty-one states have legalized medical marijuana, and in June, cannabis went even more mainstream: GW Pharmaceuticals’ Epidiolex became the first FDA-approved marijuana-derived drug; this is just the beginning for new pot-based medicine. 

New Electric Medicine: Kristoffer Famm

Kristoffer Famm is making “waves" in the medical world by using electricity to treat disease. 

As nerves communicate through electrical signals in the body, Famm’s research has found a way to use that natural body function to create implantable electronic devices that can control the activity of organs to treat diseases.

OCD Treatment: Bjarne Hansen and Gerd Kvale

Did you know that 1% of adults in the United States — approximately 2 to 3 million people — currently have OCD?

As obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can take months of therapy to treat, Bjarne Hansen and Gerd Kvale have found a new age-therapy program to speed up the healing process to just four days. Instead of meeting with a therapist once or twice a month, their program does an intensive deep dive into exposure therapy — ten to 12 hours a week.

Through this program, 1,200 people with OCD have recovered, constituting a 70% recovery rate, and have remained in remission four years later; this is an incredible breakthrough in the mental health community. 

Menstrual Health: Dr. Regine Sitruk-Ware

Family planning efforts and menstrual innovation were halted for years, but Dr. Regine Sitruk-Ware’s work at the Population Council’s Center for Biomedical Research is revolutionizing pregnancy prevention. 

In August 2018, “the FDA approved Annovera, a single vaginal ring that is inserted and removed painlessly by the patient and provides a full year of birth control.”

Leaning into more options, including male birth control, Sitruk-Ware is creating the future of family planning. 

Allergy Affordability: Kare Schultz

If you have conditions requiring an EpiPen, you know how the affordability has wavered in the past few years. 

Without having generic options, prices can be through the roof for life-saving medications that families need, and that is where Kare Schultz of Teva Pharmaceutical comes in to save the day. In August of 2018, Teva won FDA approval for what the agency called the first generic version of the EpiPen. 

This is a wonderful example of fighting for the healthcare needs of everyday Americans.

Ready to Make History: Modern-Day Heroes of the Industry 

We could go on and on about the wonderful efforts, advocacy, and innovations of the past century, but we hope this list left you inspired to learn more about what is new out in the medical world and maybe even inspire you to want to make a change for the better in your own communities.

Starting in your immediate circles, know that we at Nursa partner with you to contribute to healthier and happier lifestyles for nursing professionals. Whether through our per diem app that leads the way for modernized nursing jobs or by providing nurses information at their fingertips on current trends and industry information, we are there for you.