List of physicians
This is a list of famous physicians in history:

# Physicians famous for their role in advancement of medicine
- William Osler Abbott (19021943) - co-developed the Miller-Abbott tube
- Thomas Addis (18811949)  pioneered urine testing and the study of renal diseases
- Virginia Apgar (19091974)  anesthesiologist who devised the Apgar score used after childbirth
- Hans Asperger (19061980)  Austrian paediatrician after whom Asperger's Syndrome is named
- Jean Astruc (16841766)  wrote one of the first treatises on syphilis
- Averroes (11261198)
- Avicenna (9801037)  Persian physician
- Frederick Banting (18911941)  isolated insulin
- Christiaan Barnard (19222001)  performed first heart transplant
- Charles Best (18991978)  assisted in the discovery of insulin
- Norman Bethune (18901939)  developer of battlefield surgical techniques
- Theodor Billroth (18291894)  founding father of modern abdominal surgery
- Charaka Indian physician
- Jean-Martin Charcot (18251893)  pioneering neurologist
- Charles R. Drew (19041950)  blood transfusion pioneer
- Helen Flanders Dunbar (19021959) important early figure in U.S. psychosomatic medicine.
- Galen (129  c. 210)  Roman physician and anatomist
- Garcia de Orta (15011568)  revealed herbal medicines of India, described Cholera
- Christiaan Eijkman (18581930)  pathologist, studied beriberi
- Pierre Fauchard father of dentistry
- Girolamo Fracastoro (14731553)  wrote on syphilis, forerunner of germ theory
- Sigmund Freud (18561939)  founder of psychoanalysis
- Daniel Carleton Gajdusek (born 1923)  studied Kuru, Nobel prize winner
- William Harvey (15781657)  English physician, described the circulatory system
- Ernst Haeckel (18341919)  physician and anatomist
- Henry Heimlich (born 1920)  inventor of the Heimlich Maneuver and the Vietnam War era Chest Drain Valve
- Orvan Hess (19062002)  Fetal heart monitor and first successful use of Penicillin
- Hippocrates (c. 460370 BCE)  Greek father of medicine
- Ashoka Jahnavi-Prasad - introduced sodium valproate as a safer alternative to lithium in bipolar disorders
- Edward Jenner (17491823)  English physician popularized vaccination
- Carl Jung (18751961)  Swiss psychiatrist
- Leo Kanner (18941981)  Austrian-American psychiatrist known for work on autism
- Seymour Kety (19152000)  influential American neuroscientist
- Tsendiin Khaidaw  reviver and innovator of traditional Mongolian medicine
- Robert Koch (18431910)  formulated Koch's postulates
- Theodor Kocher  thyroid surgery and first surgeon to win the Nobel Prize
- Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec (17811826)  inventor of the stethoscope
- Janet Lane-Claypon (18771967)  pioneer of epidemiology
- Joseph Lister (18271912)  pioneer of antiseptic surgery
- Richard Lower (16311691)  studied the lungs and heart
- Amato Lusitano (15111568)  discovered venous valves, studied blood circulation
- Madhav (8th century A.D.)  medical text author and systematizer
- Maimonides (11351204)
- Marcello Malpighi (16281694)  Italian anatomist, pioneer in histology
- Otto Fritz Meyerhof (18841951)  studied muscle metabolism (Nobel prize)
- George Richards Minot (18851950)  Nobel prize for his study of anemia
- Charles Horace Mayo (18651939)  co-founder, Mayo Clinic
- William James Mayo (18611939)  co-founder, Mayo Clinic
- William Worrall Mayo (18191911)  co-founder, Mayo Clinic
- Richard Morton (16371698)  identified tubercles in consumption (phthisis) of lungs; basis for modern name tuberculosis.
- Egas Moniz (18741955)  developed Lobotomy and brain artery angiography.
- William McBride  discovered teratogenicity of thalidomide
- Herbert Needleman  scientifically established link between lead poisoning and neurological damage; key figure in successful efforts to limit lead exposure
- Charles Jean Henri Nicolle (18661936)  microbiologist who won Nobel prize for work on typhus
- Gary Onik - inventor and pioneer of ultrasound guided cryosurgery for both the prostate and the liver
- William Osler (18491919)  called the "Father of Modern Medicine"
- Ralph Paffenbarger  conducted classic studies demonstrating conclusively that active people reduce their risk of heart disease and live longer
- Paracelsus (14931541)
- Ambroise Pare (15101590)  advanced surgical wound treatment
- Wilder Penfield (18911976)  pioneer in neurology
- Joseph Ransohoff (19152001)  neurosurgeon who invented the modern technique for removing brain tumors
- Rhazes (c. 854  925) (Abu Bakr Mohammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi)
- Jonas Salk (19141995)  developed a vaccine for polio
- Lall Sawh (born 1951)  Trinidadian Surgeon/Urologist and pioneer of Kidney transplantation in the Caribbean
- Ignaz Semmelweis (18181865)  a pioneer of avoiding cross-infection  introduced hand washing and instrument cleaning
- John Snow (18131858)  anaesthetist and pioneer epidemiologist who studied cholera
- Sushruta (c. 500 BCE)  Indian physician and pioneering surgeon
- Thomas Sydenham (16421689)  clinician
- James Mourilyan Tanner (born 1920)  developed Tanner stages and advanced auxology
- Helen B. Taussig (18981986)  founded field of pediatric cardiology, worked to prevent thalidomide marketing in the US
- Carlo Urbani (19562003)  discovered, and died from, SARS
- Andreas Vesalius (15141564)  Belgian anatomist, often referred to as the founder of modern human anatomy.
- Vidus Vidius (15081569) First professor of Medicine at the College Royal and author of medical texts.
- Rudolf Virchow (18211902)  German pathologist, founder of fields of comparative pathology, cellular pathology.
- Allen Oldfather Whipple (18811963)  devised the Whipple procedure in 1935 for treatment of pancreatic cancer
- Carl Wood in vitro fertilization
- Ole Wormius (15881654)  pioneer in embryology
- Sir Magdi Yacoub (born 1935)  One of the leading developers of the techniques of heart and heart-lung transplantation
- Boris Yegorov (19371994) Russian - First physician in space, 1964

# Physicians otherwise notable as practitioners
- Maimonides (11351204) - Physician of the Grand Vizier Alfadhil as well as Sultan Saladin of Egypt
- Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (18361917) - first British woman to practice as a doctor
- Emily Barringer (18761961) - American, and first female ambulance surgeon and the first woman to secure a surgical residency
- Elizabeth Blackwell (18211910) - first woman to practice modern medicine
- Sir Horace Evans - UK royal physician
- Jack Kevorkian (born 1928) - right-to-assisted-death advocate
- Alphonse Laveran (Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran) (18451922) - parasitology
- Johann Friedrich Struensee (17371772) - royal physician of Christian VII of Denmark
- Paul Rohmer (18761977) french physician considered as the father of the modern paediatrics in the east corner of France

# Physicians famous chiefly as eponyms
See also Medical eponyms
Among the better known eponyms:
- Thomas Addison (17931860) - Addison's disease
- Alois Alzheimer (18641915) - Alzheimer's disease
- Albert Calmette (18631933)- Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), a vaccine for tuberculosis
- Carlos Chagas (18791934) - Chagas disease
- Jean-Martin Charcot (18251893) - Maladie de Charcot, Charcot joints, Charcot's triad, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease
- Burrill Bernard Crohn (18841983) - Crohn's disease
- Camillo Golgi  (18431926) - Golgi apparatus
- Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (17381814) - Guillotine
- Charles Mantoux (18771947) - Mantoux test for tuberculosis
- Antoine Marfan (18581942) - Marfan syndrome
- Silas Weir Mitchell (18291914) - Mitchell's disease
- James Paget (18141899) - Paget's disease
- James Parkinson (17551824) - Parkinson's syndrome
- Hans Asperger -  Asperger syndrome
- Karl Adolph von Basedow - Basedow disease
- Paul Broca - Broca's area
- David Bruce - Brucellosis
- Denis Parsons Burkitt - Burkitt lymphoma
- Harvey Cushing - Cushing's disease
- John Langdon Down - Down syndrome
- Bartolomeo Eustachi - Eustachian tube
- Gabriele Falloppio - Fallopian tube
- Ernst Grafenberg - Grafenberg spot (G-spot)
- Gerhard Armauer Hansen - Hansen's disease
- Thomas Hodgkin - Hodgkin's disease
- George Huntington - Huntington's disease
- Moritz Kaposi - Kaposi sarcoma
- Daniel Elmer Salmon - Salmonella
- Georges Albert Edouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette - Tourette syndrome
- Gunner Stickler - Stickler syndrome

# Physicians famous as criminals
- John Bodkin Adams - British suspected serial killer.
- Karl Brandt (19041948) - Nazi human experimentation
- Baruch Goldstein (19561994) - assassin
- Shiro Ishii - headed Japan's Unit 731 during World War II which conducted human experimentation for weapons and medical research
- Radovan Karadzic (born 1945) - accused of ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia
- Jack Kevorkian (born 1923) - convicted of second-degree murder, Michigan, April 13, 1999
- Josef Mengele (19111979) - known as the Angel of Death, Nazi human experimentation
- Samuel Mudd (18331883) - condemned to prison for setting the leg of Abraham Lincoln's assassin
- Herman Webster Mudgett (18601896) - American serial killer
- Herta Oberheuser (19111978) - Nazi human experimentation
- Richard J. Schmidt - American physician who contaminated his girlfriend with AIDS-tainted blood
- Harold Shipman (19462004) - British mass murderer
- Michael Swango (born 1953) - American serial killer

# Physicians famous as writers
see also A Roster of Physician Writers
Among the better known writers:
- Mikhail Bulgakov (18911940) -  Russian novelist and playwright
- Anton Chekhov (18601904) - Russian playwright
- Robin Cook - American author of bestselling novels, wrote Coma
- Michael Crichton (born 1942) - American author of Jurassic Park.
- A. J. Cronin (18961981) - Scottish novelist and essayist, author of The Citadel.
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (18591930) - British author of Sherlock Holmes fame.
- John Keats (17951821) - English poet
- W. Somerset Maugham (18741965) - British novelist and short story writer, wrote Of Human Bondage.
- Alfred de Musset (18101857) - French playwright, discovered sign of syphilitic aortitis
- Francois Rabelais (14831553) - French author of Gargantua and Pantagruel.
- Friedrich von Schiller (17591805), German writer, poet, essayist and dramatist.
- William Carlos Williams (18831963) - American poet and essayist
And others:
- John Arbuthnot - author
- Patrick Abercromby (1656  c. 1716) - historian
- Janet Asimov - (born 1926) (nee Janet O. Jeppson). American psychiatrist, wife of Isaac Asimov.
- Arnie Baker - cycling coach
- Sir Thomas Browne (16051682) - British writer
- Georg Buchner - German dramatist
- Ludwig Buchner - German philosopher
- Thomas Campion - poet, composer
- Deepak Chopra - Indian/American writer of self-help and health books
- Alex Comfort (19202000) - British writer and poet, author of The Joy of Sex.
- Michael Cook - American writer of suspense novels
- Ctesias (5th century B.C.) - Greek historian
- Erasmus Darwin (17311802). British poet, grandfather of Charles Darwin
- Georges Duhamel (18841966) - French writer, dramatist, poet and humanist
- Havelock Ellis (18591940) - British writer and poet, author of The Psychology of Sex
- Victor Frankl (19051997) - Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, author of Man's Search for Meaning
- Samuel Garth (16611719) - British author and translator of classics
- William Gilbert
- Oliver Goldsmith - American author
- Atul Gawande, surgeon and New Yorker medical writer.
- H. Richard Hornberger author of M*A*S*H
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (18091894) - American essayist
- Arthur Johnston (15871641) - poet
- Dimitris P. Kraniotis - Greek poet
- Ronald Laing - Scottish writer and poet, leader of the anti-psychiatry movement.
- Stanisaw Lem (born 1929) - Polish author of science-fiction (Solaris)
- Carlo Levi (19021975) - Italian novelist and writer
- David Livingstone (18131873) - Scottish medical missionary, explorer of Africa, travel writer
- Adeline Yen Mah - Chinese-American author.
- Jean-Paul Marat (17431793) - French writer, a leader of French Revolution, assassinated in bathtub
- Paolo Mantegazza (18311910) - Italian writer, wrote a science fiction book, L'Anno 3000
- Silas Weir Mitchell (18291914) - American writer
- Mungo Park
- Joao Guimaraes Rosa - Brazilian writer
- Sir Ronald Ross (18571932) - British writer and poet, discovered the malarial parasite.
- Theodore Isaac Rubin (born 1923). American author of Lisa and David.
- Oliver Sacks (born 1933). British essayist (e.g. The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat)
- Albert Schweitzer (18751965) - German theologian, philosopher, organist, musicologist
- Frank Slaughter (19082001) American bestseller author, wrote (Doctor's Wives)
- Tobias Smollett (17211771) - author
- Benjamin Spock (19031988) - American pediatrician, wrote Baby and Child Care.
- Lewis Thomas (19131993) - American essayist and poet
- Sir Henry Thompson, British surgeon and polymath.
- Vladislav Vancura (18911942) - Czech writer, scriptwriter and film director
- Francis Brett Young (18841954) - English novelist and poet

# Physicians famous as politicians
- Bashar Al-Assad - President of Syria
- Ibrahim Al-Jaafari - Prime minister of Iraq
- Iyad Allawi - interim Prime Minister of Iraq
- Salvador Allende (19081973) - Chilean president
- Emilio Alvarez Montalvan - Foreign Minister of Nicaragua
- Arnulfo Arias - Panaman President
- Michelle Bachelet - Current Chilean President
- Hastings Kamuzu Banda (18981997) - Prime Minister, President and later dictator of Malawi
- Louis Blanqui - French revolutionary socialist
- Frederick William Borden - Canadian MP and minister of the Militia
- Bob Brown - parliamentry leader of the Australian Greens
- Gro Harlem Brundtland (born 1939) - first Norwegian female prime minister and Director-General of the World Health Organization
- Georges Clemenceau (18411929) - French statesman
- Margaret Chan - Director General of the WHO and former Director of Health of Hong Kong
- York Chow - Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food of Hong Kong
- Tom Coburn (born 1948) - U.S. Senator
- Howard Dean (born 1948) - American politician
- Francois Duvalier (19071971) - also known as Papa Doc - President and later dictator of Haiti
- Antonio Palocci Filho - Brazilian politician, Finance Minister
- Christian Friedrich, Baron von Stockmar -  Anglo-Belgian statesman
- Bill Frist (born 1952) - United States Senate Majority Leader
- Hedy Fry (born 1941) - Canadian politician, member of parliament
- Che Guevara Latin American revolutionary leader
- George Habash - founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
- John Pope Hennessy - former Governor of Hong Kong
- Grant Hill (politician) - former Canadian MP
- Wilbert Keon - Canadian senator
- Mohammad Reza Khatami - Iranian politician
- Juscelino Kubitscheck - Brazilian president
- Jean-Paul Marat - French revolution leader
- Keith Martin - Portuguese Canadian MP
- William McGuigan - mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia
- Mahathir bin Mohamad - Malaysian prime minister
- Brendon Nelson - Australian politician
- Agostinho Neto (19221979) - MPLA leader and president of Angola
- David Owen - British politician
- Ron Paul (born 1935) - American politician
- Andrew Refshauge - Australian politician
- Navin Ramgoolam - Prime minister of Mauritius
- Maxime Ferrari - Minister for Development Seychelles
- Jose Rizal (18611896) - Filipino revolutionary and national hero
- Theodore Robitaille - Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, Quebec MNA and Senator
- Bidhan Chandra Roy - Indian politician
- Helio de Oliveira Santos - Brazilian politician, mayor of Campinas
- Tabare Vazquez - Current Uruguayan President
- Bette Stephenson - Ontario MPP and former Minister of Labour, Minister of Education and Minister of Colleges and Universities
- Sun Yat-Sen (18661925) -  Founder of republican China
- Donald Matheson Sutherland - MP and former minister of National Defence
- Sir Charles Tupper (18211915) - Prime Minister of Canada (1896) and Premier of Nova Scotia (18641867); High Commissioner in Great Britain (1884-1887)
- Ali Akbar Velayati (born 1945) - Iranian Foreign Minister from 1981 to 1997.
- William Walker (soldier) (18241860) - ruler of Nicaragua
- Dave Weldon - US congressman and autism activist
- Ray Lyman Wilbur (18751949) - United States Secretary of the Interior, president of Stanford University
- Thomas Wynne (16271691) - Physician to William Penn, speaker of the first two Provincial Assemblies in Philadelphia (1687 & 1688)
- Yeoh Eng-kiong - former Secretary for Health and Welfare of Hong Kong

# Physicians famous for other activities
- Abd-el-latif  traveller
- Anderson Ruffin Abbott
- Keith Ablow  television psychiatrist
- Jane Addams  social activist
- Georg Agricola  mineralologist
- David Alter  inventor
- Oswald Avery (18771955)  molecular biologist who discovered DNA carried genetic information
- Ali Bacher  cricketer
- Josiah Bartlett  American statesman and chief justice of New Hampshire
- T. Romeyn Beck (17911855)  American forensic medicine pioneer
- Maximilian Bircher-Benner (18671939)  nutritionist
- Herman Boerhaave  humanist
- Alexander Borodin  composer
- Thomas Bowdler  censor
- Shahrul Ezam Borhan  College of Public Care Medicine of Malaysia 
- Lafayette Bunnell  explorer of Yosemite Valley
- Gerolamo Cardano
- John Caius (15101573)  physician and educator
- Graham Chapman  British comedian of Monty Python fame
- Laurel B. Clark (19612003)  American Astronaut, killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
- Arthur Dee
- Sextus Empiricus (2nd3rd century C.E.)  philosopher
- Gordon S. Fahrni
- Niels Ryberg Finsen
- Luigi Galvani  physicist
- Pierre Gassendi (15921655)  philosopher
- William Gilbert (15441603)  physician and physicist
- W. G. Grace  cricketer
- Nehemiah Grew  botanist
- Samuel Hahnemann  founder of homeopathy
- John Hall (died 1635)  son-in-law of William Shakespeare
- Armand Hammer  entrepreneur
- Samuel Gridley Howe  abolitionist
- Hermann von Helmholtz  physicist
- Jan Baptist van Helmont (15771655)  physiologist
- Mae Jemison (born 1956)  astronaut
- Stuart Kauffman (born 1939)  biologist
- John Harvey Kellogg
- Cesare Lombroso (18351909)  based his system of criminology on physiognomy
- John Lovelock (19101949)  Olympic athlete
- John McAndrew (born 1927)  All-Ireland Gaelic Footballer
- June McCarroll  inventor of lane markings
- James McHenry (17531816)  signer of the United States Constitution
- Archibald Menzies  naturalist
- Franz Mesmer (17341815)  proponent of mesmerism and the idea of animal magnetism
- Jonathan Miller  television presenter and stage director
- Paul Mohring (17101792)  zoologist, botanist
- Maria Montessori  educator
- Boris V. Morukov  cosmonaut
- Lee "Final Table" Nelson  professional poker player
- Haing S. Ngor  Oscar winning film actor
- Nostradamus  French esoterist
- Heinrich Wilhelm Matthaus Olbers (17581840)  astronomer
- Caspar Peucer
- Christian Hendrik Persoon  South African botanist
- Claude Perrault  architect
- Philippe Pinel
- Pope John XXI
- Mowaffak al-Rubaie  human rights advocate, member of the Interim Iraqi Governing Council
- John Ray  plant taxonomer
- Peter Mark Roget  English lexicographer
- Jacques Rogge  sports official
- Benjamin Rush  signer of the United States Constitution
- Daniel Rutherford (17491819)  chemist
- Felix Savart  physicist
- Alfred Schopenhauer  philosopher
- Albert Schweitzer  humanist
- Michael Servetus (15111553)  burnt at the stake by Calvinists for heresy
- Rob Sitch  comedian
- Socrates (born 1954, Socrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira)  Brazilian football (soccer) player, one of the best midfielders ever, is a doctor of medicine and earned the degree while concurrently playing professional football, to top it he holds a doctorate degree in philosophy
- L.Subramaniam  violonist
- James Hudson Taylor (18321905)  British missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission
- Norman Earl Thagard  astronaut
- Debi Thomas (born 1967)  Olympic figure skater
- William E. Thornton  astronaut
- Nasiruddin al-Tusi  astronomer
- William Walker  Latin American Adventurer
- Andrew Wakefield  conducted studies on disputed link between vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders, which had many serious consequences
- John Clarence Webster  Canadian historian
- Wilhelm Weinberg  with G.H. Hardy, developed the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium model of population genetics
- Michael Welner  Forensic psychiatrist
- JPR Williams  rugby union player
- Thomas Young  scientist
- Ayman al-Zawahiri  Al-Qaeda leader