This page lists pioneers and innovators in healthcare either in Wales or by Welsh people, including in medicine, surgery and health policy.
Julia Bell MA Dubl (1901) MRCS LRCP (1920) MRCP (1926) FRCP (1938) was one of the pioneers of human genetics. Her early career as a statistical assistant to Karl Pearson (1857–1936) marked the beginning of a lifelong professional association with the Galton Laboratory for National Eugenics at University College London. Bell's work as a human geneticist was based on her statistical investigations into the inheritance of anomalies and diseases of the eye, nervous diseases, muscular dystrophies, and digital anomalies.
Alan Julian Macbeth Tudor-Hart, commonly known as Julian Tudor Hart, was a general practitioner (GP) who worked in Wales for 30 years, known for theorising the inverse care law. He produced medical research and wrote many books and medical articles.
The Royal Marsden Hospital (RM) is a specialist cancer treatment hospital in London based in Kensington and Chelsea, next to the Royal Brompton Hospital, in Fulham Road with a second site in Belmont, close to Sutton Hospital, High Down and Downview Prisons. It is managed by the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1983 to Wales and its people.
Ilora Gillian Finlay, Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, FRCP, FRCGP, FLSW, FMedSci is a Welsh doctor, professor of palliative medicine, and a Crossbench member of the House of Lords.
Dr Dame Rosemary Rue, DBE, FRCP, FFPHM, FRCPsych, FRCGP FRCS was a British physician and civil servant, most notable as the one-time regional general manager/medical officer of the Oxford Regional Health Authority.
Frances Elizabeth Hoggan was a Welsh doctor and in 1870 became the first woman from the UK to receive a doctorate in medicine from any university in Europe. She was a pioneering medical practitioner, researcher and social reformer – and the first female doctor to be registered in Wales. She and her husband opened the first husband-and-wife medical practice in Britain. She was honoured with Wales' 11th Purple Plaque in her birth-town of Brecon in March 2023.
Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life by reducing pain and suffering. Hospice care provides an alternative to therapies focused on life-prolonging measures that may be arduous, likely to cause more symptoms, or are not aligned with a person's goals.
Sir Clement Price Thomas was a pioneering Welsh thoracic surgeon most famous for his 1951 operation on King George VI.
Herbert Barrie, was a British consultant paediatrician and a leading figure in neonatology. He was a pioneer in the emerging specialty of paediatrics and neonatal medicine; and he developed one of the first neonatal intensive care units in London.
Rhys ab Owen, also sometimes referred to as Rhys ab Owen Thomas is a Plaid Cymru politician. He was elected to the Senedd in the South Wales Central region in the 2021 Senedd election. ab Owen was Plaid Cymru's spokesperson in the Senedd for the constitution and justice. He is a barrister. His, father Owen John Thomas, represented the same region for the same party.
Eve Wiltshaw was a British physician who was a researcher and consultant at the Royal Marsden Hospital. She was an expert in medical oncology, and led the United Kingdom's first clinical trials of cisplatin. In 1998, she wrote A History of the Royal Marsden Hospital.
Professor Mark Taubert FRCP FRCGP is a German-British consultant doctor and professor of medicine at Cardiff University. He is a palliative care physician in Wales, who according to the Western Mail and Welsh Government website has contributed significantly to the development of his specialty, and has received recognition as a doctor and campaigner, nationally and internationally.
Sir Thomas John Carey EvansMC FRCS was a Welsh surgeon who served as a doctor in the British army in India and as the first inspector of the British Postgraduate Medical School, when the school was founded at Hammersmith Hospital, London.