CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE 4 Growing New Organs CHAPTER SIX 58 Advances and Challenges in Vaccine Research CHAPTER TWO 16 Fighting Cancer with the Immune System CHAPTER SEVEN 70 Data Driven Health Care CHAPTER THREE 28 Zeroing in on Cancer Cells CHAPTER EIGHT 80 The Launch of Telemedicine CHAPTER FOUR 38 Genetics and Personalized Medicine CHAPTER NINE 90 Robots and Supercomputers Are Coming 100 Essential Facts CHAPTER FIVE 48 Confronting a Chronic Health Crisis 102 Glossary 104 Additional Resources 106 Source Notes 110 Index 112 About the Author
ONE GROWING NEW ORGANS ore than 120 000 people in the United States are waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant at any given time Yet in 2014 less than one quarter of these patients received transplants The gap between the number of patients who need an organ and the number of organs available to be transplanted continues to widen Meanwhile the costs are fatal Each day 22 people die while waiting for a transplant Organ shortages have increasingly become a public health crisis Even in cases in which a patient receives a transplant from a donor there is a still a strong chance their body will reject the organ To combat this many patients need to take drugs that suppress their immune system so it doesn't attack the organ for the rest of their lives Although these drugs known as immunosuppressants are vital for organ recipients they weaken the immune system which Until doctors are able to grow more leaves the body less resistant to infectious diseases types of organs in the lab artificial and cancer means such as heart pumps help some
