Health
5 of America’s greatest medical breakthroughs revealed as the nation marks 250 years
A look back at the medical miracles of 2025
Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to highlight 2025 breakthroughs, from a pineapple-derived burn cream to a newly approved heart procedure.
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America has been at the forefront of medical innovation since the nation’s founding in 1776.
From groundbreaking surgeries to cancer breakthroughs, U.S. physicians have helped transform nearly every field of medicine.
As America marks its 250th anniversary, experts are highlighting some of the most influential medical innovations in the nation’s history.
No. 1: Orthopedic care
John Uribe, MD, orthopedic surgeon and system chief executive at Baptist Health Orthopedic Care in Florida, said he believes the greatest breakthrough in orthopedics is the evolution of joint replacement surgery, particularly of the hip and knee.
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“A generation ago, severe arthritis or joint damage often meant a lifetime of pain, limited mobility and loss of independence,” he told Fox News Digital.
“Today, orthopedic surgeons can replace a damaged joint with highly durable implants, use advanced imaging and navigation, and increasingly rely on robotic-assisted technology to personalize implant positioning and improve precision.”
“The future of orthopedics will be less one-size-fits-all and more focused on matching the right procedure, implant, recovery plan and technology to the individual patient,” a doctor said. (iStock)
Today, patients can walk the same day after joint replacement, return home sooner and recover with less disruption than in the past, according to Uribe.
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“Hip and knee replacements, arthroscopic procedures, advanced fracture care and spine treatments have allowed patients to stay active longer and maintain independence as they age,” the doctor said. “The biggest impact is that orthopedic care can give people back parts of their lives they thought they had lost.”
“For many patients, the goal is no longer just to relieve pain; it is to restore movement, independence and quality of life.”
No. 2: Mental health treatment
For most of America’s 250 years, mental illness was largely treated indirectly with medication, or not at all when medication was ineffective, according to Dr. Russ Voltin, a West Virginia-based practicing psychiatrist and medical consultant at BrainsWay.
The biggest breakthrough, Voltin told Fox News Digital, has been neuromodulation therapies like deep transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which are “clinically proven to non-invasively target the brain circuits involved in conditions such as depression and OCD, helping rebalance neural activity at its source.”
“Mental health is brain health, and for the first time, we have treatments designed to address it that way.”
For most of America’s 250 years, mental illness was largely treated indirectly with medication, or not at all when medication was ineffective. (iStock)
A generation ago, a patient who didn’t respond to medication had very limited options, he said.
“Today, a clinician can offer noninvasive brain stimulation in an outpatient chair – no anesthesia, no sedation, none of the prominent side effects of medication, and all with limited lifestyle interruption.”
The FDA recently expanded clearance for an accelerated Deep TMS protocol that shortens the initial phase of depression treatment from about four weeks of daily visits to just six treatment days.
“Mental health is brain health, and for the first time, we have treatments designed to address it that way.”
“For someone in a depressive crisis, this is the difference between waiting and getting better,” the expert said.
In clinical trials, roughly 78% of patients reached remission and more than 80% were still in remission a full year later.
“The biggest shift is that for people who once cycled through medication after medication with no relief, durable recovery is now a realistic goal rather than a hope.” (iStock)
“As a clinician, that last figure is the one that matters most: People going back to work, repairing relationships and re-entering their own lives, not just scoring better on a questionnaire,” Voltin said.
“The biggest shift is that for people who once cycled through medication after medication with no relief, durable recovery is now a realistic goal rather than a hope.”
No. 3: Cancer care
Cancer care has advanced dramatically over the past 250 years, with breakthroughs in prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment transforming patient outcomes.
Leonard Kalman, MD, acting system chief executive at Baptist Health Cancer Care and acting executive medical director at Baptist Health Herbert Wertheim Cancer Institute in South Florida, said one of the most important breakthroughs in oncology is the understanding that “at its core,” cancer is a genetic disease.
Today, physicians can cure certain leukemias and lymphomas that were “once far more difficult to treat,” an expert noted. (iStock)
“Cancer can be driven by inherited germline mutations or by somatic mutations that occur in normal tissue and lead cells to become malignant,” he told Fox News Digital. “That discovery has transformed how we understand, diagnose and treat cancer.”
Today, physicians can cure certain leukemias and lymphomas that were “once far more difficult to treat,” the doctor noted.
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“We can also extend life while preserving quality of life for many patients with metastatic cancers — including diseases such as lung cancer, melanoma and prostate cancer, where treatment options were much more limited a generation ago,” Kalman said.
Many of those advances have shifted cancer care toward more individualized treatment, allowing physicians to tailor therapies based on a patient’s specific disease.
“For many patients, the goal is no longer just to relieve pain; it is to restore movement, independence and quality of life.”
“Advances in targeted therapies, immunotherapy, molecular testing and supportive care allow physicians to better personalize treatment, manage side effects and help patients live longer with a better quality of life, even when cancer has spread beyond the primary tumor,” the doctor said.
No. 4: Cardiovascular care
Tom Nguyen, MD, system chief executive at Baptist Health Heart & Vascular Care and chief medical executive at Baptist Health Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute in South Florida, highlighted the ability to diagnose heart disease earlier and treat “even the most complex conditions” with safer, more precise and less invasive therapies.
“Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, but patients who once might have died in their 40s or 50s are now routinely living into their 80s and 90s with an excellent quality of life,” he told Fox News Digital.
Although cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, patients who once might have died in their 40s or 50s are now “routinely living into their 80s and 90s with an excellent quality of life,” the doctor said. (iStock)
Procedures like open-heart surgery, coronary artery bypass surgery, coronary stents, catheter-based valve replacement, advanced imaging and robotic heart surgery have “completely transformed what is possible,” according to Nguyen.
“Robotic heart surgery is a powerful example of how far the field has come,” he said. “For appropriately selected patients, surgeons can now perform highly complex heart procedures through much smaller incisions using robotic technology that provides exceptional visualization, precision and control.”
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The biggest achievement, Nguyen said, is not only helping people live longer, but also helping them “live better.”
“Today, heart and vascular specialists can perform procedures that would have seemed almost unimaginable just one generation ago,” he said. “Patients are surviving heart attacks, valve disease, rhythm disorders and complex vascular conditions at rates that would have been difficult to imagine decades ago.”
“Many complex cardiac operations that once required opening the chest can now be performed through small incisions, or robotically – allowing patients to recover much faster with less pain and disruption to their lives,” a doctor said. (iStock)
Success isn’t measured only by survival, Nguyen added. “Our ultimate goal is to help patients feel better and return to the lives they enjoy.”
No. 5: Neurology
Michael McDermott, MD, system chief executive of Baptist Health Brain & Spine Care and chief medical executive at Baptist Health Miami Neuroscience Institute, said the ability to safely operate on the brain is the greatest advancement in American neuroscience.
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“Less than a century ago, a craniotomy was an extraordinarily risky operation, and survival itself was far from guaranteed,” he told Fox News Digital. “Today, advances in anesthesia, electrocautery, imaging, surgical navigation, brain mapping and intraoperative neurophysiologic monitoring have transformed brain surgery into a highly precise and much safer procedure.”
The ability to treat acute stroke in real time has been “equally transformative,” McDermott noted.
The growth of artificial intelligence is “beginning to transform spine surgery,” a neurologist said, by helping physicians identify which patients are “most likely to benefit from complex corrective procedures and by allowing implants to be precisely modeled before surgery.” (iStock)
“Using advanced imaging and mechanical thrombectomy, physicians can now remove a clot from the brain and restore blood flow before permanent damage occurs in many eligible patients,” he said. “At the same time, innovations such as high-intensity focused ultrasound for essential tremor demonstrate how neuroscience has become increasingly precise and less invasive.”
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Today, neuro experts can accomplish tasks that “would have been difficult to imagine just one generation ago,” McDermott noted.
“We can remove blood clots from the brain during an active stroke, implant deep brain stimulation devices for Parkinson’s disease, and perform highly sophisticated brain and spine surgery using advanced imaging, navigation and artificial intelligence,” he said.
Medical advancements have improved quality of life in patients with brain tumors and spinal complications. (iStock)
Advances like image-guided surgery, intra-operative brain mapping, neurophysiologic monitoring and radio-surgery allow surgeons to remove tumors more safely while protecting areas of the brain responsible for movement, speech and other critical functions, he said.
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Beyond brain tumors, other advances across neuroscience, like corrective spine surgery, have allowed doctors to restore posture and mobility in patients with severe spinal deformities. Meanwhile, focused ultrasound can “significantly reduce tremors that interfere with everyday activities such as writing, eating or drinking,” McDermott noted.
“Increasingly, our goal isn’t simply to help patients survive – we’re helping them maintain their independence, preserve function and return to the lives they want to live.”
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This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
A 30-year-old man has been asking people he doesn’t know to sit with him in pubs across the country ever since December of last year, as part of what he calls his “Empty Chairs” campaign.
Dean Perryman came up with the idea after his best friend, Rob Clancy, tragically died by suicide at age 29 just a month earlier.
Wanting to make sure nobody else ever felt alone — even perfect strangers — Perryman started heading out to restaurants and pubs wearing a bright orange hoodie to make his presence obvious to anyone choosing to chat with him.
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Just a few weeks ago, he held his program’s 1,000th meet-up in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, featuring about 12 attendees — and said he’s proud of how far it has come.
“It has been such an incredible experience. I am loving every second of it still,” the resident of Stratford in East London told news agency SWNS.
Dean Perryman, second from right, has been inviting strangers to sit with him in pubs to help let people know they aren’t alone in life. (Dean Perryman/SWNS)
“When I started, it came from such a place of sadness — and to see how this simple idea has been able to help so many people has been really nice,” he said. “I have been able to meet and connect with so many new people and learn about them. It gives people an opportunity to speak openly if they need it.”
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Perryman works for team-building game company Chicken Rush. He used social media, he said, to create interest in the “Empty Chair” idea, he said.
The events started in London and Essex before the founder began recruiting volunteers to host them across the U.K. — and the rest of the world as well.
Events have since been planned in Manchester, Bedford, Cambridge, Skegness, Gloucester, Leeds, York, Wrexham, and more.
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It has also branched out to other countries, including Colombia, Spain, the United Arab Emirates and Australia.
He said lots of people actually return to the events, especially in smaller rural towns, as people create and build friendships that last long afterward.
Perryman, in orange sweatshirt, back row, has been inviting strangers to sit with him in pubs to encourage connection. “There really isn’t a barrier to entry,” he said. “Whoever needs the space is welcome to come.” (Dean Perryman/SWNS)
Perryman, who has attended 61 himself, said his favorite part of the events is seeing men open up about their troubles, as he feels they need a safe space to do so.
“Some people come because they really want someone to listen to what they have to say,” he said. “Others come because they have the capacity to be there for someone else. Everyone shares their own story, but it stays at the table.”
“No matter who you are, there is a place for you.”
He said the groups have “talked about the difficulty of living in a big city and feeling isolated, but nothing is off the table — we’ve spoken about everything and anything. To give people a place that they can go when they need to talk is incredible.”
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Perryman said he has about 200 more events already lined up — and said he has no plans to stop scheduling them, SWNS reported.
He said there is no pattern in terms of who shows up. Usually, it’s a diverse group of people.
Perryman, right, has been asking people he doesn’t know to sit with him in pubs as part of his “Empty Chairs” suicide prevention campaign. (Dean Perryman/SWNS)
“Every Empty Chairs event you go to, you are going to meet people of different walks of life,” he said. “It is so powerful to show that, no matter who you are, there is a place for you. We have everyone — men, women, young, old. There really isn’t a barrier to entry for this. Whoever needs the space is welcome to come.”
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He also said, “A lot of people come because they’re feeling lonely in a new area, or they want to make new friends.”
He said he hopes that his Empty Chairs campaign can be a lasting legacy for his best friend, Rob — someone he believes needed a similar space.
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“He was the kindest, sweetest guy you could ever hope to meet,” said Perryman. “Like a lot of men, he wasn’t the biggest sharer. He was very much the life and soul of anywhere you went, but he wasn’t someone who would be the first to open up about it if he was feeling some type of way.”
“To now be in a position where Empty Chairs looks like it could be a legacy for Rob is amazing,” Perryman added.
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A 78-year-old Oklahoma woman who was diagnosed with polio as a child and was the last American to rely on an iron lung to live has died.
Martha Lillard found out she had the once-feared disease when she was 5 years old, which left her paralyzed from the neck down, and required her to use the machine to help her breathe while she slept.
Lillard contracted COVID-19 twice during the pandemic, which left her in the machine nearly 24 hours a day.
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“They told her she wasn’t supposed to live past 20 years old,” her younger sister, Cindy McVey, told The Associated Press on Friday. “She had the enthusiasm and the drive to continue living and make the best of her life.”
Despite having polio, Lillard was able to go to school two hours a day as a child, and she had tutors the rest of the time. She also used an intercom phone system that allowed her to interact with her teachers and classmates from home.
Martha Lillard rests in her iron lung in Shawnee, Oklahoma. (Cindy McVey/AP Photo, File)
Lillard was even able to take road trips as a child because of a custom trailer that could accommodate the iron lung and her father making sure their hotels had wide enough doors for the machine.
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An iron lung is a negative-pressure ventilator that would help a patient with paralyzed lung muscles breathe.
A row of iron lungs is seen inside in a Los Angeles hospital in 1950. (Bettmann Archive)
The disease once caused thousands of cases of paralysis in children during outbreaks each year in the first part of the 20th century before a vaccine became available in 1955.
By 1979, polio was considered eliminated in the U.S.
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Later, Lillard was able to regain the use of her left arm and legs through therapy and was even able to drive for a time.
She lived independently for many years, even getting married earlier this year to a man from Egypt she corresponded with for two decades after he was able to obtain a visa.
A nurse prepares children for a polio vaccine shot as part of a citywide vaccine test on elementary school students. (Bettmann Archive)
“They were really soul mates,” McVey said. “He’s extremely brokenhearted.”
Lillard, who wrote poetry and volunteered with the Humane Society, according to her sister, had just 25% lung capacity before she was diagnosed with COVID.
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She died of chronic pulmonary failure and post-polio syndrome, according to her death certificate.
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Her sister added that it was related to the effects of long-haul COVID.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
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Reducing your risk of cancer death may be as simple as taking brief breaks for physical activity throughout the day, according to a new observational study.
The study, led by researchers from the University of Glasgow studying the association between cancer and prolonged sedentary behavior, found that participants who regularly interrupted prolonged sitting with physical activity had a lower risk of cancer death.
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“This study adds to growing evidence that prolonged sedentary behavior is an independent health risk,” Dr. Georgia Spear, chief of breast imaging at Northwestern Medicine, told Fox News Digital.
“While it does not prove that sitting causes cancer, it suggests that long, uninterrupted periods of sitting are associated with a higher risk of cancer mortality,” Spear explained. “The findings reinforce existing public-health recommendations that regular movement throughout the day is an important component of cancer prevention.”
Prolonged sedentary periods are associated with increased risk of cancer death, researchers observed. (iStock)
The researchers monitored 91,292 volunteer participants in the U.K. who wore movement-tracking devices on their wrists for seven days to track their sedentary habits. The scientists followed the volunteers’ health outcomes over the course of about 12 years.
The researchers defined prolonged sedentary behavior as any bout that lasted “at least 30 minutes and during which at least 90% of the time was sedentary.”
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They defined interrupted sitting as sessions that lasted fewer than 30 minutes or were interrupted by brief periods of physical activity.
Each additional hour per day of prolonged sedentary behavior was associated with a 10% higher risk of cancer death, the researchers reported in their study, published by PLOS Medicine.
Light physical activity, including household chores, such as ironing, are associated with reduced cancer death risk. (iStock)
Replacing one hour of sitting each day with light activity was associated with a 12% lower risk of cancer death. Replacing 30 minutes with moderate activity was linked to an 8% lower risk, and replacing just five minutes with vigorous activity was associated with a 22% lower risk.
The researchers classified light physical activity as walking at a low speed and performing household chores, such as ironing a shirt or washing dishes.
These findings should be interpreted with caution, the researchers wrote, “because the study cannot prove causality.”
The volunteers may not represent the wider population, they noted, “and the activity monitor captured behavior only during a limited period without showing the context of sedentary behavior, such as work, television viewing or driving.”
Spear said that existing research has linked sedentary behavior to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and several cancers.
Breaking up periods of sitting or reclining with physical activity is key to reducing the risk of cancer death, researchers found. (iStock)
“What is notable here is the finding that how people sit appears to matter, not just the total amount,” she said. “Breaking up sitting with regular movement may provide measurable health benefits.”
According to Spear, other simple lifestyle strategies can be highly effective at reducing cancer-death risk.
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“Stand and move every 30 to 60 minutes, take short walking breaks, including after meals, use the stairs, walk during phone calls and incorporate light activity throughout the day,” she recommended.
“Combined with regular exercise, maintaining a healthy weight, limiting alcohol, not smoking and staying current with recommended cancer screening, these habits can help reduce the risk of breast cancer and other chronic diseases.”
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