Get your thinking caps on!

The introduction of the NHS in 1948 sparked a number of pioneering medical breakthroughs, one of the most significant being medical research establishing a link between smoking and lung cancer. A number of these breakthroughs were Scottish, for example:

• Glasgow produced the first practical ultrasound scanners, which even today continue to save countless lives across the world;
• Edinburgh University established the first UK nursing studies unit in 1959;
• A team at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary performed the first successful kidney transplant in the UK in 1960;
• By 1974 the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) was developed helping to reduce the number of avoidable deaths in head injury patients;
• In 1980 the world’s first clinical service for MRI was launched at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary; and
• The first UK-use of ‘keyhole surgery’ was performed at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee in 1989;
• In 1998, a Scottish man was fitted with the world's first fully mobile ‘bionic’ arm.

For your competition entry you may want to consider:

• What new medical technology might be available in the future?
• How medicine or surgical procedures could be developed?
• How people in Scotland might access healthcare in the future?

For inspiration and ideas, you may want to learn a bit more about the NHS in Scotland, health in general or the technology already available by exploring the internet or going along to your local library. You might even want to interview friends and family who have used the NHS or NHS staff members to find out more about their experiences.

Sci-fi films and medical TV programmes may also help you develop some interesting ideas.

Whether you come up with an idea that is factual, fictional or bizarre we want to hear it!

Visit www.60yearsofnhsscotland.co.uk