Published On October 7, 2015
The Changes We've Seen
Proto looks at trends in health care during the last 10 years.
In any scientific field, 10 years can bring epochal changes. In medicine, which exists at a unique intersection of science, politics and the economy, that change comes from many quarters. The repercussions over a decade can affect millions of lives, in good ways and bad.
When Proto magazine debuted in 2005, overall spending on health care in the United States was more than 40% lower. More researchers received national funding, and more people died of HIV. A national conversation about universal acccess to research journals was just beginning. Technologies such as genome sequencing, digital patient records and 3-D printing were only hinting at the profound changes that each would bring.
While no number tells the whole story, the graphics and charts below show the changed state of health care in 2015 and the decade's headline trends.
Charts & Data
The Next Zika Vaccines are most helpful before an epidemic hits. So which diseases should researchers prepare for next?
ResearchKit A software platform from Apple is helping medical researchers collect health data from any iPhone user
Unsound the Alarm Hundreds of alarms compete for a clinician's attention. Can less noise mean better care?
Making Up Disaster All the terrifying world's a stage, and artists borrow tools of the theater to give models in drills remarkably lifelike wounds and burns.
Top Stories 
Sniffing Out Lung Cancer
Testing cells in the nostril may change how doctors diagnose the deadliest form of cancer.
