This page lists pioneers and innovators in healthcare either in Wales or by Welsh people, including in medicine, surgery and health policy.
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 is a specialist National Health Service oncology hospital in London based at two sites in Brompton, in Kensington and Chelsea, and Belmont in Sutton. It is managed by The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and supported by The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.
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 Welsh politician representing the South Wales Central constituency since 2021. He was suspended from the Senedd for 42 days - the longest suspension of any Senedd Member, after he was found to have "inappropriately touched" a woman on a night out. A former member of Plaid Cymru, ab Owen was suspended in 2022, and formally expelled from the party in July 2024. 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.
William Fletcher was an English medical doctor who in 1907 published the results of an experiment showing beriberi could be prevented by eating unpolished rice.
Professor Mark Taubert FRCP FRCGP FLSW 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.
The Ernestine Henry Lecture is a talk based on occupation hazards, delivered every three years. It was endowed to the Royal College of Physicians in London, in 1949 by British physician Sydney Alexander Henry, in memory of his mother Ernestine Henry, the wife of a General Practitioner in Rochdale, Lancashire. It is now delivered as part of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine/Society of Occupational Medicine annual conference "Occupational Health"