Health
Discover facts about health. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Health
The nurse who invented the modern crash cart
For decades, when a critical emergency happened, staff had to frantically sprint around gathering supplies from completely different rooms. It took until 1965…
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Cotton swabs were once sold as Baby Gays
Before they dominated the bathroom cabinet market, the humble cotton swab suffered through one of the most absurd branding phases in history. Invented in the…
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Even sibling fights have medical billing codes
Childhood squabbles are annoying to parents, but to medical coders, they are quantifiable data points requiring administrative categorization. When a…
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There's a medical code for laundry injuries
Sorting darks and lights is a mundane chore until it inexplicably results in a trip to the clinic. This activity code lets administrators know that your…
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The medical code for flaming water skis
Nothing screams 'recreational disaster' quite like catching fire while aggressively gliding over a body of water. The World Health Organization decided that…
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There’s even a medical code for a cow bite
Bovines are typically known for peacefully chewing cud, making a targeted bite from one a rather unique statistical event. Fortunately, the manuals are thick…
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North America's first hospital opened in Mexico
Long before massive domestic conglomerates started dominating the continent's billing cycles, the very first institution was established in 1524. Located in…
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Electronic device injuries have an official code
Endlessly scrolling through social media is now officially recognized as a vector for physical peril. If your smartphone or tablet somehow causes you distress…
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There's a medical code for an unknown hoofed-animal bite
For those chaotic moments when you are bitten by an ungulate but fail to properly identify its species in the heat of the moment. The bureaucracy provides a…
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Surgeon literally means someone who works with their hands
Despite the elite status and extensive academic training required today, the original title is basically synonymous with being a manual laborer. The Greek…
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There’s a medical code just for mobile home driveways
A driveway is simply not descriptive enough for the global medical community; they demand to know the exact architectural nature of the associated residence.…
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Falling off a horse has its own medical code
Equestrian pursuits have a long history of depositing humans violently onto the ground. Instead of generic fall codes, the system insists on knowing that a…
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Psychological hardiness is a resilience trait
Instead of just telling people to toughen up, psychologists created a complex framework detailing why some people handle chaos better than others. Hardiness…
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Humans are covered in as many hair follicles as chimps
You might mock your hairy ancestors, but the joke is on your own genetic code. Humans have roughly five million hair follicles across their bodies, which is…
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Why you shouldn't split every pill in half
Taking a knife to a random tablet is a fantastic way to ruin your dosage schedule. Unless a pill is explicitly manufactured with a scored groove down the…
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Your medicine capsule may be made from livestock
Vegetarians might want to look away from their medicine cabinet. Those smooth, easy-to-swallow translucent capsules are almost entirely manufactured from…
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Medicine needs binding ingredients to compress active chemicals into solid tablets
Without highly specialized industrial glue, your medicine would just be a disappointing pile of dust. Binders like microcrystalline cellulose are forcibly…
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Why you should never crush extended-release pills
Taking a mortar and pestle to an extended-release pill fundamentally destroys its entire purpose. Smashing the sophisticated time-delay matrix completely…
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The rust-colored ingredient in your medicine
If your daily medication features a soothing reddish or yellow hue, you are likely consuming trace amounts of glorified rust. Pharmaceutical manufacturers…
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Compounding pharmacies custom-mix raw chemical powders
Mass manufacturing doesn't work for absolutely everyone. A specialized tier of facilities known as compounding pharmacies operates like bespoke chemical…
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Orphan drugs are manufactured solely for rare diseases
The pharmaceutical industry actually has a designated term for chemical compounds that barely anyone needs. 'Orphan drugs' target conditions affecting tiny…
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Active pharmaceutical ingredients ship in cardboard drums
The purest, most expensive chemical molecules on earth do not travel in glamorous armored cases. Raw pharmaceutical ingredients, fresh from massive overseas…
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Medication guides are legally mandated prescription handouts
Those massive, folded scrolls of incredibly dense microscopic text stapled to your prescription bag are not optional reading material. For specific classes of…
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Why prescriptions start with Rx
That universal crossed-R symbol plastered on every pharmacy awning in the world isn't an arbitrary logo. It is a stylization of the Latin word 'Recipe,' which…
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