Medical care is at once more efficacious since the glorious 1950's,and exponentially more expensive. At least by the 1950's medical care did more good than harm, which was once arguably not the case. My grandfather was a surgeon back in the dark ages. I used to talk with his wife, my grandmother, who lived to be 99 years of age, about his practice, often, when I drove from Chicago to Davenport, Iowa, to visit her while in college (along with her fascinating civil war stories that her parents shared with her; her father was in Sherman's march to the sea).
One little sidebar. My grandfather kept the founder of ciropractery out of the Outing Club in Davenport, with a "black ball." He considered him a dangerous quack, and a clear and present danger to the health of the citizens. Cheers.
Interesting story and yes, medicine has come quite far, since the 1950s; though some doctors are still killing people.