Medicine on the battlefield

War has historically acted as a catalyst for scientific and technological progress, particularly in medicine and public health. From early innovations in surgical techniques and orthopaedics to breakthroughs in blood transfusion, conflict created urgent needs that accelerated innovation. The two World Wars advanced antibiotics, imaging, ultrasound, and pacemakers, while Cold War rivalries spurred aerospace and nuclear medicine. Yet, war also devastated scientific communities by repressing and exiling people such as Jewish individuals and Spanish Republicans. Beyond technology, war reshaped health policy: epidemics, malnutrition, and social crises fostered social medicine, national health systems, and international cooperation through the League of Nations and Rockefeller Foundation. The complex network of negotiations and influences was the starting point for the health industry, as well as the ideological background to the welfare state health policies implemented in most European countries after the Second World War.