My impression is that at a Public Health level most forms of medicine don't make much of an impression. Antibiotics would probably be an exception. Vaccinatio

My impression is that at a Public Health level most forms of medicine don't make much of an impression. Antibiotics would probably be an exception. Vaccinations if you choose to call them medicine. At the population level though most of the things that affect health and life expectancy are life style choices of one type or the other that Doctors have not show an ability to control. My Dr. might be able to tell me that my smoking is bad. That I need to lose 10 lbs. That getting black out drunk every weekend isn't doing me any good. All of that and more. But Dr's aren't any good about doing anything about those things. You could add clean water and clean air in that pile. Compared to that cancer detection and extending the lives of people with cancer is a drop in the bucket. Of course if you fall into that category then it's a huge difference but overall I don't think it makes a huge difference.