Opinion: The surprising biomedical legacy of the Iraq War

Monday marked the 20^th anniversary of the Iraq war, which resulted in an estimated 110,600 deaths of Iraqis and 4,431 U.S. servicemembers killed and 31,994 wounded in action across eight years. Those stark numbers cannot truly tabulate the tragedy that countless families and servicemembers have endured.

But on this anniversary, it is also worth looking at something unexpected: The terrible war has led to startling advances in medical care. As a young captain in the U.S. Army, I was deployed to Iraq as part of my career in military intelligence. That journey would lead me to make a major course change, and today I am working to push the boundaries of health care technology to benefit soldiers and civilians alike.

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