Medical Animals As The Future Of Health Care

Published May 9, 2011
Updated February 4, 2019

How animals can be transformed into medical assistant devices and used in a more holistic health approach including medical animals in treatment.

Revital Cohen designed the Life Support project to show how animals could be transformed into alternative, low-cost medical assistant devices and a part of a more holistic health care strategy to include medical animals in treatment:

Greyhound Sheep Respiratory Device

Greyhound Sheep Medical Animals

Cohen outlines a plan to use greyhounds that are retired from racing as a ventilation aid for humans with respiratory problems. The dog would replace a mechanical ventilator by running at an object it is trained to chase using the pressure of its vacillating chest to pump air into the patient’s lungs – a non-invasive method of providing aid.

Revital Cohen Sheep Dialysis

Revital Cohen Sheep Dialysis Machine Picture

Interestingly, Cohen also prototyped a method for sheep to act as a natural dialysis machine for humans. To start, a lab will take the bone marrow tissue of the selected patient and the major histocompatibility complex, and plant the patients DNA bundle in a test tube sheep. For the rest of that animal’s life, it can serve safely as the blood-cleaner.

Medical Animals As The Future Of Health Care

author
All That's Interesting
author
A New York-based publisher established in 2010, All That's Interesting brings together subject-level experts in history, true crime, and science to share stories that illuminate our world.
editor
All That's Interesting
editor
A New York-based publisher established in 2010, All That's Interesting brings together subject-level experts in history, true crime, and science to share stories that illuminate our world.