Discovery

If there was just one discovery I would make during my lifetime, it would be a cure for heart disease. From a personal and professional standpoint, finding a cure for this disease and its many ancillary impacts on humanity would save more lives, lead to a higher quality of life for millions of people, and spare literally billions of dollars in research dollars that could be used to eradicate HIV / AIDS and other diseases than any other. Heart disease claimed two relatives through congenital heart disease and it was shocking how fast their conditions deteriorated. Within eight weeks of being diagnosed, both had passed away.

Curing heart disease would also completely change how entire families and communities thought about life, and they would embrace it all the more. Take for example Mississippi, the state with the dubious distinction of having the highest incidence of heart disease. Think of there was a cure for this disease and what it would mean to the people of this region of the country, many of them challenged economically, to see the future not as a threat of death from heart disease, but stronger and more able to confront life's tougher challenges and better themselves.

Curing heart disease would also save literally billions of dollars from the medical research budgets that could be used for fighting other diseases and also increasing the quality of life for entire nations by funding hunger relief and more comprehensive education programs. In addition, curing heart disease would solve many related medical conditions, including the loss of eyesight, loss of the use of limbs, a drastic reduction in strokes, and would also stop amputations caused by a lack of circulation in limbs as well. Finally, solving heart disease would drastically reduce the costs of healthcare nationally and lead to more effective use of federal funds in addressing other, equally pressing health challenges.