How We Chose the TIME100 Most Influential People in Health of 2026
The past year has been a busy one for the global health sector. Innovation shot forward when Dr. Kiran Munsunuru and Dr. Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas administered the first-ever customized CRISPR therapy to treat a baby’s genetic disease. In promising trials, new immunotherapies cured cancers, and the search for cancer vaccines advanced. Novo Nordisk, led by CEO Mike Doustdar, released the first GLP-1 pill to the market. And, after the Trump Administration cut funding for international aid and medical research, leaders around the world stepped up to try to fill the funding voids. This year, the TIME100 Health—the people most influential in the world of health right now—are more pivotal than ever.
To select these 100 individuals, our team of health correspondents and editors, led by Emma Barker Bonomo and Mandy Oaklander, spent months consulting sources and experts around the globe. What emerged is a community of scientists, doctors, advocates, educators, and policy-makers, and others—all leaders in their own ways—who are changing the health of the world.