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.
