We’re incredibly proud to celebrate Pascal Geldsetzer, MD, PhD, who has been named to TIME's 2026 TIME100 Health List of the World’s Most Influential Leaders in Health.
These titans, innovators, leaders, pioneers, and catalysts named by TIME have pushed new ideas — from gene therapies to regulatory agencies — ahead to build healthier populations around the world.
Geldsetzer, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in Primary Care and Population Health at Stanford, with a courtesy appointment in Epidemiology and Population Health. His research focuses on finding practical, high-impact ways to improve health as people age, using large-scale health data to answer questions that traditional clinical trials often can’t.
Geldsetzer is especially known for his work using natural experiments (real-world policy changes and health system rollouts) to uncover cause-and-effect relationships in population health.
In 2025, he led landmark studies showing that shingles vaccination is associated with a lower risk of dementia and may slow disease progression, offering new insight into the role of immune and viral pathways in neurodegenerative disease, and ultimately, changing how we think about healthcare.
