Imaging squeaks into top 10 list of medical milestones

Medical imaging was voted as the ninth greatest medical milestone since 1840, trailing the pill but besting computers, according to an open online poll conducted by the British Medical Journal.

Sanitation, antibiotics, and anesthesia stood at the top, garnering 16%, 14.5%, and 14% of the votes, respectively. Vaccines and the discovery of the DNA structure rounded out the top five. The oral contraceptive pill, germ theory, and evidence-based medicine made the list before medical imaging attracted 4% of the votes. Computers fell into the number 10 spot (BMJ 2007;334:online).