--- description: We asked our team of health editors and reporters to nominate people who significantly changed the state of U.S. health care this year. title: How We Chose the 50 Most Influential People in Health Care of 2018 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca53b0d292018e4a/69893ce27cdbac7c2ed5e33a/healthcare-50.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) ## Health Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # How We Chose the 50 Most Influential People in Health Care of 2018 by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 18, 2018 11:00 AM CUT  Zach Wittman for TIME; Peter Hapak for TIME; Erin Schaff—The New York Times/Redux; Robbie McClaran—Redux for TIME by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 18, 2018 11:00 AM CUT The American health care system has been plagued for decades by major problems, from lack of access to uncontrolled costs to worrying rates of medical errors. And yet, real as those issues remain, the field has also given rise to extraordinary innovation. This year, TIME launched the Health Care 50 to highlight the people behind those ideas: physicians, scientists, and business and political leaders whose work is transforming health care right now. To assemble our first annual list, we asked our team of health editors and reporters to nominate people who significantly changed the state of U.S. health care this year. Then we evaluated their work on key factors, including originality, impact, and quality. To see the full list, [click here](http://time.com/collection/health-care-50/ "undefined"). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5420604/how-we-chose-2018-influential-people-in-healthcare/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5420604/how-we-chose-2018-influential-people-in-healthcare/"},"headline":"How We Chose the 50 Most Influential People in Health Care of 2018","datePublished":"2018-10-18T11:00:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T21:42:13.446Z","description":"From physicians and scientists to businesses and political leaders","url":"https://time.com/5420604/how-we-chose-2018-influential-people-in-healthcare/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca53b0d292018e4a/69893ce27cdbac7c2ed5e33a/healthcare-50.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltca53b0d292018e4a/69893ce27cdbac7c2ed5e33a/healthcare-50.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"healthcare-50","caption":"healthcare 50","creditText":"Zach Wittman for TIME; Peter Hapak for TIME; Erin Schaff—The New York Times/Redux; Robbie McClaran—Redux for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5420604/how-we-chose-2018-influential-people-in-healthcare/","name":"How We Chose the 50 Most Influential People in Health Care of 2018"}}]}] ```