an experiment at Stanford Hospital in California, clinicians were encouraged to reduce orders for red blood cell transfusions except when absolutely required. In five years, transfusions at the hospital fell by a quarter. The result was not only a $1.6 million saving in costs but fewer deaths, quicker average discharges, and a reduction in posttreatment complications. Now, however, Doctor and his colleagues in St. Louis think they have nearly cracked the problem. “We have nanotechnology at our disposal now, which wasn’t available before,”
