Medicine & Health

From Heimlich Maneuver to the Speed of Light

About 300,000 people in the United States get a new lease on life every year by undergoing coronary bypass surgery. It can prevent a heart attack by restoring healthy blood flow through clogged arteries in the heart. The World Health Organization lists cimetidine (Tagamet) as one of the world’s most essential drugs. It keeps the stomach from producing too much acid, which can cause serious medical problems. The Heimlich Maneuver has saved the lives of 50,000 people who were choking on food and other objects.

All those medical advances have one thing in common. They are from Ohio, like other important ways of preventing, diagnosing, and treating disease.
Ohioans also have been leaders in scientific research and innovation in other fields. Research by Ohioan Albert A. Michelson and his colleague Edward William Morley paved the way for Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Battelle, for instance, played a key role in developing the Xerox process for making photocopies. It also pioneered contract research with governmental and industrial sponsors as a new way of doing research.