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YouTube docuseries on the history of urinalysis

Urine: A liquid lens into your health

It's often stated that the cotton textile, mining or quarry industries are the oldest in the world. But one industry often gets forgotten in mention of our first professions as humans – the study of urine. Follow us to the origins of urine testing to the invention of modern urinalysis in the 1950s all the way to its future.

The future of urinalysis

What’s next for urine testing? Urinalysis interpretation enters the world of miniaturization, wearables, and the Internet of Things (IoT). With breakthrough markers in development, the future for this time-tested technology is in the capable hands of today’s pioneers and inventors, underscoring the importance of urinalysis.

The importance of urinalysis today

Urinalysis becomes the gold standard and reaches beyond glucose testing. The ubiquitous urine test detects pregnancy to ph, bacteria to bilirubin, ketones to kidney function. From early warning of diabetes and kidney failure to population health management, urine testing helps doctors fight the world’s most threatening diseases.

The beginning of modern urinalysis

Urine testing moves into the laboratories where two pioneering chemists fall in love and invent the first dip-and-read glucose urine test. The birth of urinalysis opens the door to decades of development of new types of urine testing that help improve patient health.

The nascent days of urinalysis

Early settlers in Midwest America were pioneers in urine testing. They set the cornerstone on a booming healthcare company that understood the importance of urinalysis and ultimately discovered the first commercialized urine tests. See how an Elkhart, Indiana-based laboratory, dedicated to finding the elusive “wonder drug,” stumbled onto an effervescent technology that would change medicine forever.

Urine testing – how it all began

From taste to color, urine became a common, albeit primitive, method of detecting glucose – urine testing began before some of humanity's earliest inventions. A simple urine test helped early doctors understand why people were sick. Along the way, opportunists took advantage of this ubiquitous patient sample and misused it for deceptive practices, tainting urine's reputation. How does urine clear its name among serious medical professionals and the public?

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