1,953 articles
Water fluoridation
Water fluoridation: controlled addition of fluoride to public water supplies to prevent tooth decay, begun in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1945; U.S. target 0.7 mg/L, covering 72.3% of public-water users in 2022.
Waverly Hills Sanatorium
Waverly Hills Sanatorium, Louisville, Kentucky tuberculosis hospital (1910–1961), later Woodhaven Geriatric Center; famous for the 500-foot body chute, Room 502 ghost legends, and the exaggerated 63,000-deaths myth.
Wayne Joseph Riley
Wayne Joseph Riley is an American internist and physician executive who has served since 2017 as the 17th president of SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, New York.
West China Hospital of Sichuan University
West China Hospital of Sichuan University (四川大学华西医院, Huaxi Hospital), founded 1892 in Chengdu, is a 4,900-bed public teaching hospital with 43 national key clinical specialties, ranked second in Fudan's national hospital rankings.
West Nile virus in the United States
West Nile virus in the United States is the endemic transmission of a mosquito-borne virus first detected in New York City in 1999, the leading cause of domestically acquired mosquito-borne disease.
Western African Ebola epidemic
Western African Ebola epidemic (2014–2016), the largest Ebola outbreak on record, began in Meliandou, Guinea in December 2013, spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone and seven other countries, causing over 28,600 cases and 11,325 deaths before ending in June 2016.
WH-PACT trial
WH-PACT (NCT02039856, VA CRE 12-026) was a 12-site cluster randomized trial led by Elizabeth Yano testing evidence-based quality improvement to tailor VA's PACT medical home model to women Veterans; it improved team functioning and burnout but showed no patient-level differences.
WHIMS-ECHO study
WHIMS-ECHO (Women's Health Initiative Memory Study–Epidemiology of Cognitive Health Outcomes) is a longitudinal cohort study, begun September 2008, following older WHI hormone therapy trial participants with annual telephone cognitive assessments through 2021; distinct from Project ECHO tele-education.
White House Coronavirus Task Force
White House Coronavirus Task Force: US federal COVID-19 response body announced January 29, 2020, first led by HHS Secretary Alex Azar, then Vice President Pence; held daily briefings, sent weekly state reports, replaced by Biden's COVID-19 Response Team.
Whittington Hospital
The Whittington Hospital, Archway, London N19 5NF: NHS acute hospital run by Whittington Health NHS Trust, CQC-rated Good, maternity requires improvement; site dates to 1473; £60m maternity and £80m power redevelopment underway.
William Adam Grobman
William Adam Grobman is an American maternal-fetal medicine specialist and clinical researcher at Brown University and Care New England who led the 2018 ARRIVE trial.
William C. Gorgas
William C. Gorgas, also known as William Crawford Gorgas, was an American Army physician whose mosquito control eliminated yellow fever from Havana and the Panama Canal Zone.
William R. Hazzard
William R. Hazzard is an American geriatrician whom the American Geriatrics Society calls a founding father of geriatric medicine in the United States, and a Wake Forest professor emeritus.
William W. Stead
William W. Stead is an American physician recognized as a founder of biomedical informatics, who built Vanderbilt's electronic health record and informatics department over 29 years of leadership.
WIPO study
The WIPO study (NCT05318261, the WIPO Study) was a 2025 multicentre observational study of weaning-induced pulmonary oedema in 500 ICU patients across 13 ICUs in France, Italy, and India, finding WIPO in 12% of spontaneous breathing trials and 36% of weaning failures, with COPD and previous cardiomyopathy as risk factors.
WISE trial (NCT05261620)
WISE trial (NCT05261620), Wine Implementation for Surgical Recovery Enhancement, a completed monocenter randomized trial at IRCCS San Raffaele testing 30 days of moderate postoperative red wine intake (150 ml at lunch and dinner, 800 mg gallic acid equivalent phenolics) versus no alcohol in 132 habitual drinkers after urological surgery; distinct from the Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation and WiSE-CRT.
Women's and Children's Hospital
Women's and Children's Hospital, North Adelaide: South Australia's major tertiary hospital for women and children, formed 1989 from the Adelaide Children's and Queen Victoria hospitals; largest maternity service; $3.2b replacement planned.
Women's health
Women's health: branch of medicine covering women's physical and emotional well-being across the life course, beyond reproductive care. Defined by WHO life-course framing, the 1993 NIH Revitalization Act, and persistent research gaps.
Woodrow A. Myers Jr.
Woodrow A. Myers Jr. is an American physician-executive who served as health commissioner of Indiana and New York City and as WellPoint's chief medical officer.
Workplace
Workplace: the place or physical location of work or employment (MeSH D017132, 1993). Covers offices, factories, and remote settings; central to occupational health, safety law, and hybrid work arrangements.
Workplace health & safety
Workplace Health & Safety (WH&S), also AAOHN Journal, is the monthly peer-reviewed official journal of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses, published by Sage since 2015, Scopus Q1, CiteScore 3.9, ISSNs 2165-0799 and 2165-0969.
World Cancer Day
World Cancer Day, observed every 4 February, is a UICC-led global awareness day created by the 2000 Charter of Paris; its 2025-2027 theme is United by Unique, with 1,000+ activities in 89 countries in 2026.
World Health Organization
World Health Organization (WHO), UN specialized health agency founded 1948, Geneva; governed by World Health Assembly and Director-General Tedros; funded under 20% by dues; eradicated smallpox 1980; United States withdrew 22 January 2026.
World Health Organization ranking of health systems in 2000
WHO's 2000 ranking of health systems, from The World Health Report 2000, scored 191 member states on five indicators; France ranked 1st, Italy 2nd, the US 37th, and the exercise drew heavy methodological criticism.
World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe
WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe), one of WHO's six regional offices, serves 53 Member States from Copenhagen; governed by the annual Regional Committee, led by Regional Director Hans Kluge, and implements the European Programme of Work.
World Water Day
World Water Day is a UN observance held every 22 March since 1993, coordinated by UN-Water, raising awareness of the global water crisis and supporting SDG 6, with annual themes such as Water and Gender (2026).
Wu Lien-teh (伍连德)
Wu Lien-teh (伍连德, 1879–1960), Penang-born Cambridge physician, led the 1910–11 Manchurian pneumonic plague response, invented the Wu mask precursor to the N95, founded China's modern public health system, and was nominated for the 1935 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Yale New Haven Hospital
Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH), founded 1826 as the General Hospital Society of Connecticut, is a 1,541-bed nonprofit teaching hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, flagship of Yale New Haven Health and primary teaching hospital of Yale School of Medicine.
Youth Risk Behavior Survey
The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is a biennial, anonymous CDC survey measuring health-risk behaviors among students in grades 9 to 12 in US public and private schools.
Yu-Mei Y. Chao
Yu-Mei Y. Chao is a Taiwanese nursing scientist at National Taiwan University who became Taiwan's first holder of a nursing PhD in 1979 and won the 2008 Princess Srinagarindra Award.