THE BIGGEST HEALTH BREAKTHROUGHS OF 2022

EVERY YEAR THERE ARE SCIENTISTS, DOCTORS, AND HEALTH CARE ADVOCATES WHO REACH INCREDIBLE MILESTONES WITH THEIR WORK. WE CELEBRATE THE INVENTIONS AND ADVANCES FROM THIS YEAR THAT PROMISE TO IMPROVE LIVES FOR DECADES TO COME.

1 3D-Printed Implantable Body Parts and More

WHY IT'S A BIG DEAL: Cutting-edge printing techniques are saving more patients than ever.

3D printing has become incredibly innovative: For one thing, it's used to make customized prosthetics out of plastic or metal. This summer, doctors in San Antonio created and implanted a 3D-printed human ear using the patient's own cartilage cells. And a custom-printed 3D lower jaw made of titanium was put into a patient whose jaw had been removed as part of his cancer treatment huge improvement over traditional of bone taken from elsewhere in the body implants The technology can also help surgeons design their operations. Jonathan Morris, M.D., medical director of the 3D Anatomic Modeling Unit at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, notes that Mayo surgeons have changed their approach 15% of the time as a result of prepping with 3D models. This year Mayo even hired Hollywood engineers and computer scientists to put 3D-printed models into virtual reality so surgeons could try out techniques. "You can do all kinds of things in virtual reality that you can't do in the real world, like take a skull apart, move blood vessels, or stand inside a patient's diseased heart," Dr. Morris says.

2 A Major Advance in Cancer Treatment

WHY IT'S A BIG DEAL: A drug has been found to work in hard-to-treat breast cancer and other cancers as well.