The medical and medicinal worlds owe their fast-paced growth and revolutionary changes to the back-breaking research work and the researchers’ and doctors’ single-minded dedication.

Whenever you pop a pill or see a dear friend/relative availing of some complicated medical procedure to cure a health issue, you probably think pleasurably of the significant advances of medical science. But pioneers or those stalwarts in the medical world who first invented the vaccine to a dreaded disease or revolutionized a surgical procedure are hardly thought of or remembered once the medical process becomes popular.

Six Pioneers Who Made it Despite Odds

African Americans’ social and economic unequal conditions and disparities even till the not so distant past are clear to almost everybody. Here are six doctors who battled the odds and became trailblazers.

  • Mary Eliza Mahoney, the first African American nurse who achieved great fame for her nursing skills and great determination as early as 1909. She later became involved in the social revolution and crusaded for the rights of African nurses.
  • Dr. James McCune Smith is remembered as the first African doctor who earned a medical degree and was allowed to practice in the USA. He was also incidentally, the first person to own a pharmacy in New York.
  • Dr. Rebecca Crumpler is known for her major contributions to the African community’s overall health improvement through revolutionary clinical work.
  • Dr. Charles Drew was a physician, surgeon and researcher who pioneered a new blood plasma theory that helped save thousands of lives during World War 2.
  • Dr. Daniel H Williams founded the first black hospital and the world’s first 100% successful heart surgery in 1893.
  • Dr. W Hinton was the first doctor and researcher who gained access to Harvard by openly competing against all races.

Pioneers Who Are Driving the Medical World Forward

  • Dr. Anthony Atala invented the first independent construction of a human organ from the cellular state. The pediatric urologist who is currently 54 years old has created heart valves, muscles and bones from a cellular state.
  • Dr. Albert Mac Guire and Jean Bennet are a husband and wife duo who is credited with inventing the cure for Leber’s congenital amaurosis with gene therapy. 
  • Dr. Elizabeth Hyburn is known for the discovery of the enzyme Telomerase which is now recognized as an anti-aging link and a potential cure to cancer.
  • Dr. Denise Faustman is known for pioneering a theory that claims to reverse type 1 diabetes. She is currently involved with the Massachusetts General Hospital.
  • Dr. David Holtzman has invented a new kind of testing theory for Amyloid Beta which shows great promise as the potential cure for Alzheimer’s disease.
  • Dr. Wayne Marasco is an immunologist credited with discovering an antibody that attacks the flu virus in a vulnerable point. His discovery could signal a single vaccine’s arrival against all forms of influenza and flu, including the dreaded swine flu.
  • Dr. Elaine Mardis and Richard Wilson are known for their groundbreaking contributions towards the cure of Leukemia and breast cancer.