The Chicago franchise of shows has been a highly popular one in all their iterations ever since Chicago Fire first began in 2012. The success of that show spawned the spin-offs that started with Chicago PD in 2013, and eventually Chicago Med in 2015. With Med about to wrap up Season 8, the popularity of all three shows has never dulled since their inceptions.
With each season, the intrigue and drama that centers around the doctors, nurses, paramedics, patients, and politics of the Gaffney Chicago Medical Center’s emergency department have never dulled. Season 8 was as dramatic as ever, with the hospital being taken over by a billionaire who’s brought in some amazing technological advancements, seemingly at the cost of its soul.
While doctors who form the heart of the show come and go, many remain a memorable part of the show for their skills, intriguing personalities, and the drama they come with. Ably aided by an amazing support staff of nurses and administrators, the doctors of Chicago Med often find miraculous ways to save their patients. In homage to their dedication and brilliance, here’s a list of Chicago Med’s best doctors and healthcare practitioners from past and present seasons, ranked by their respective skill levels, specialties, and dedication.
20 Dr. Zach Hudgins
While doctors and new characters come and go, one of the most intriguing parts of the show over the years has been what new interns will be introduced and what they will be like. Season 8 of Med introduced an intern doctor to the Gaffney ED named Dr. Zach Hudgins. While Zach would certainly rank high on a likability meter (he’s soft-spoken, kind, and an all-around nice guy), unfortunately, this also leaves him a little lacking in confidence and too nervous at times.
He’s also lacking some practical training due to his education being hampered by the pandemic. Nevertheless, Zach does grow in confidence and gets better as the season progresses, assisted by other others like Dr. Choi who help him gain invaluable experience. For now, though, Zach still has a lot to learn before he can reach the skill levels and specialties of his more illustrious colleagues. Zach is played by the up-and-coming actor, Conor Perkins.
19 April Sexton
While not a doctor, April Sexton (played by the beautiful Yaya DaCosta) has been an endearing part of the show since Season 1. She took a hiatus from the show for a while but returned in Season 8 as she and Dr. Choi rekindled their romance in spectacular fashion. As an emergency department nurse, she often showed that she was highly capable, talented, and passionate about her job and patients.
April’s skill was, however, often overshadowed by her willingness to break rules for her own ethical reasons. Nevertheless, she was brilliant at her job, and by Season 6, joined a Nurse Practitioners program to level up her skills. As a Nurse Practitioner, she is trained to treat certain medical conditions without the supervision of a doctor.
18 Maggie Lockwood
As one of the fan-favorite characters on the show, Maggie Lockwood has been a part of Chicago Med since the first season. Maggie is a charge nurse and basically runs the Gaffney ED with her advanced administrative skills, cool head, and brilliant organizational skills. She’s also trained as a surgical nurse and has previously assisted some of the best surgeons in the show on delicate surgeries.
Maggie’s best skill though is her experience. As a nurse, she’s seen and done it all, and often uses this experience to guide intern doctors, assist ED attending doctors on certain medical procedures, and has assisted with many childbirths. As a person, she’s loyal, caring, and a strong woman who’s even defeated cancer. With Season 9 threatening to automate the ED and make people like her redundant, it will be interesting to see how Maggie’s skills and experience will stack up against AI. Maggie is played by the respected actress, Marlyne Barrett.
17 Dr. Ava Bekker
In terms of skills and specialization, Dr. Ava Bekker who played a large part in the early seasons of Chicago Med, should be a lot higher in the rankings. After all, she was a cardiothoracic surgeon who joined Gaffney Chicago Medical Center from the world-renowned Groote Schuur Hospital in South Africa, the hospital where the world’s first successful heart transplant was completed by pioneering surgeon, Dr. Christiaan Barnard.
Despite her formidable skills, background, and experience, however, Dr. Ava Bekker proved to be a pretty unstable person. After working with and falling in love with fellow cardio surgeon, Dr. Rhodes, she becomes obsessed with him and even orchestrates his father’s death to keep them together. When she’s still rejected, she takes her own life before anyone can save her. She was played by American actress, Norma Kuhling, who displayed her own skill by very convincingly pulling off one of the most challenging TV accents around (South African Afrikaner).
16 Dr. Sarah Reese
A major part of earlier seasons of the show, Dr. Sarah Reese was a very likable character when she joined the ED as a psychiatric resident. She agonizes between specialties before being convinced to go into psychiatry. She has some ups and downs, often oversteps her role, and deals with a lot of family drama.
However, she ultimately proves to be a very capable prospect as a psychiatrist, despite eventually leaving the show under something of a dark cloud. Dr. Reese was played by Rachel DiPillo, who’s also well known for her time in The CW’s Jane the Virgin.
15 Dr. Dylan Scott
A newer member of the Med cast, Dr. Dylan Scott allowed for some crossover action between Chicago Med and Chicago PD since he was a police officer before becoming a doctor. Dr. Scott joins the ED as a highly-skilled pediatrician. He proves to be a highly attentive, skilled, and caring doctor. However, he’s often plagued by his own demons from his time as a cop.
What ultimately lets him down is his inability to stop being a cop while being a doctor. This leads him to cross a boundary and fall for one of his patients, who also happens to be an undercover cop. In his valiant attempts to keep her safe, Dr. Scott winds up causing all sorts of unintentional but horrific circumstances for himself and others, eventually leading him to leave Chicago altogether. He was played by the talented Guy Lockard.
14 Dr. Vanessa Taylor
Dr. Vanessa Taylor joins the show in later seasons as one of the new interns. She also adds a lot of intrigue to the story since she’s Maggie Lockwood’s biological daughter. As a doctor, Taylor proves highly capable and someone who definitely has what it takes to become a truly amazing physician. She’s quick thinking, confident, and well-versed with all procedures she has to perform, and an excellent diagnostician who ably cracks some difficult medical cases.
She does prove a little lax with sticking to rules, though, but this can be forgiven since she does it to save patients. Her time is brief, as she left in Season 8 for admirable reasons, as she chooses a more altruistic role in the Philippines where she can help patients without access to quality healthcare. Dr. Taylor was portrayed by the young, up-and-coming actress Asjha Cooper.
13 Dr. Kai Tanaka-Reed
It may seem strange to include interns so high up the list. However, many interns on the show do often display the kind of poise and skill that prove their worth as doctors who will likely go very far in the field. If this were a list of likable personalities, as a new intern that joined the show in Season 8, Dr. Tanaka-Reed would have likely finished dead last. He proves to be stubborn, ridiculously entitled, spoiled, and arrogant despite still being an intern.
However, he is a surgical intern, which means one day he will join an elite class of doctors as a specialist surgeon one day. Aside from this, he’s also proven quite capable already. To his credit, he does tone down his arrogance and shows humility to begin trusting and following his attending doctor’s mentorship (after being chastened by his rash decision-making). Dr. Tanaka-Reed is played by Devin Kawaoka, who ably portrays the role.
12 Dr. Grace Song
Dr. Grace is a brilliant new-age doctor who is able to leverage technological advancements to take medical treatment and patient care into the future. Appointed by the hospital’s new CEO, Jack Dayton, she gets to work installing and using the hospital’s new state-of-the-art tech to great effect, revolutionizing many procedures in the process.
However, not everyone is happy about the upgrades, as AI is seemingly taking over everything in the ED. Dr. Grace can also be a little too tech-reliant, reducing patients and real people to numbers on a screen. She’s also a little insecure about her role. Played by the beautiful actress, T.V. Carpio, she also appears to possibly be Dr. Halstead’s new love interest.
11 Ms. Sharon Goodwin
As a former charge nurse, Ms. Sharon Goodwin has proven to be one of the most experienced and competent healthcare providers since the beginning of Chicago Med. Though she’s not a doctor, her impeccable work ethic and administrative and supervisory skills allowed her to rise and become the hospital’s Executive Director of Patient and Medical Services.
She’s as adept in boardrooms as she is in the ED, is often the head of reason when chaos ensues and cares for her staff and patients. Her most endearing quality is that she refuses to ever let profits come before patient care. For these reasons, Maggie is as respected as even the best doctors at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center. She’s ably played by the highly experienced actress, S. Epatha Merkerson.
10 Dr. Hannah Asher
Jessy Schram, who plays Dr. Hannah Asher, has displayed wonderful ability as a performer since she was a child. This experience was ably brought to bear for her complex character on Chicago Med, Dr. Hannah Asher. Dr. Asher is a specialist OB-GYN and a brilliant one at that. She often shows compassion, skill, and determination to help her pregnant patients no matter what complications arise.
Sadly, her fractious past often holds her back. As a recovering heroin addict, Dr. Asher is sadly often judged by her past indiscretions. While her addiction did previously impair her as a physician, she showed great courage to seek treatment and came back stronger and more focused than ever before.
9 Dr. Natalie Manning
As one of the fan favorites from the original seasons, Dr. Natalie Manning was a skilled physician who specialized in pediatrics and emergency medicine. She was known as an excellent diagnostician who competently helped many patients with some very complex illnesses.
However, Dr. Manning’s one serious downside was that she often let her emotions cloud her judgment, or allowed them to justify some serious rule-breaking that sometimes had serious consequences for her career. She was played by Torrey DeVitto who opted not to renew her contract on the show beyond Season 6.
8 Dr. Ethan Choi
A brilliant emergency medicine doctor with a background in the Navy gives Dr. Ethan Choi brilliant skills that have often been the difference between life and death for his patients. Earning his stripes on the battlefield gave Dr. Choi some amazing skills and the ability to stay calm under pressure. It also gave him the ability to make do with whatever he has at his disposal, often needing to ingeniously throw together makeshift devices to save patients’ lives in the field or at times when the ED’s been compromised for various reasons.
Tough, brilliant, innovative, and determined, he’s a doctor anyone would readily entrust their lives to. His military background and upbringing also make him overly rigid and unwilling to ever detour from the manual at times. However, season eight has seen some dramatic circumstances soften his character greatly, making him even more likable. Dr. Choi is played by the amazing Brian Tee, an actor who’s also appeared in many blockbuster films such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
7 Dr. Dean Archer
Dr. Dean Archer is another complex character. Like Dr. Choi, he has a military background and some brilliant battle-tested skills in emergency medicine. He’s also a general surgeon and has often displayed some exceptional skills. However, he can be antagonistic toward mental illnesses and exudes too much pride to always remain objective as a physician.
Near the end of Season 8, this vice came to the fore as he inadvertently compromised patient care by refusing to admit he was physically unable to perform certain procedures. The reason is a little sad since it was revealed that he’s suffering from a life-threatening kidney illness. Despite all his faults, Dr. Archer is a very wise and highly skilled doctor. He’s played by veteran actor Steven Weber, who shines in the role.
6 Dr. Isidore Latham
Dr. Latham was a formidable addition to the early seasons of the show. As the Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center, he was brilliant, professional, and laser focused. While he struggled with autism spectrum disorder, which often made Dr. Latham a little rigid, but gave him a genius-level intellect, and savant-like skills as a surgeon.
Unfortunately, his inability to emote as complexly as other people sometimes interfered with his judgment and ability to see his patients in a more complex way that went beyond textbook approaches to their care. On the other hand, he was also prone to not being able to control his emotions like an average person. He was played brilliantly by Ato Essandoh and remains a very memorable character for his skill and heart as a person.
5 Dr. Connor Rhodes
One of the most talented specialists that have been on the show, Dr. Connor Rhodes was always exceptional as a cardiothoracic surgeon in the early seasons. Played by the suave Colin Donnell, who’s well-known for his looks and charm, made Dr. Rhodes one of the most popular doctors from the show.
Dr. Rhodes’s immense skill in performing highly complex surgeries, and saving many patients’ lives, was shown time and time again. However, he was often also ultimately let down by his bending of the rules and inability to keep his personal life from throwing him off his game and interfering in his job.
4 Dr. Will Halstead
He’s easily the most popular character in the history of the show. Dr. Will Halstead is brilliant as an emergency medicine practitioner and as a doctor in general. He has some general surgical experience, but his unique specialty is a rare one as Dr. Halstead is an exceptional diagnostician, often tirelessly finding unique, ingenious, and innovative ways to diagnose rare life-threatening illnesses in patients when other doctors and hospitals fail to help them.
While he may not be a surgeon or a more glamorous type of specialist, Dr. Halstead’s expertise and skill in what he does cannot be gainsaid as he’s responsible for saving as many lives as surgeons do. He does often play fast and loose with rules but ultimately does this because he cares so deeply for his patients. He’s played by the brilliant Nick Gehlfuss, and remains an integral part of the show — usually as the main protagonist in romantic relationships he’s shared with various other characters on the show.
3 Dr. Daniel Charles
It may seem a little strange to rank a psychiatrist third in a list that includes so many specialists and surgeons. However, Dr. Daniel Charles has proven time and time again that he has rare and invaluable skills in his field. Beyond ordinary psychiatry, Dr. Charles’s true value is in how much his many years of practice have finely tuned his instincts. These instincts often aid him in treating complex psychological cases that other doctors misdiagnose or mistreat.
With his skills and instincts as a truly amazing all-around doctor, he’s able to get seriously mentally ill people the lifelines they need to cope and get better. He also often brilliantly diagnoses when patients with seemingly mental illnesses actually have underlying medical causes — ultimately saving their lives. With his experience, calm demeanor, brilliant people skills, and instincts, Dr. Charles is easily worth as much as any surgeon in the ED. Played very affably by the amazing Oliver Platt, Dr. Charles has always been another fan favorite since the show’s inception.
2 Dr. Sam Abrams
To be fair, Dr. Sam Abrams is probably the most highly skilled doctor at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center. The problem is he knows this and is often insufferably smug about it. His confidence as a neurosurgeon is backed up by his amazing skills in what is one of the most complex medical specialties around.
If Dr. Abrams has any flaws as a surgeon and physician, it’s that he’s too arrogant and overconfident. This makes him lack crucial people skills that patients also need, and gives him a God complex that can cause him to overestimate himself, or refuse to take advice from anyone else even when it’s merited. He’s played by Brennan Brown, an actor who is very convincing in a role that demands high standards.
1 Dr. Crockett Marcel
Since his introduction to the show, Dr. Crockett Marcel has easily become one of its most popular. He’s a brilliant surgeon, who later levels up to become certified as a specialist transplant surgeon. Dr. Marcel has often been successful at surgeries that most surgeons would be too hesitant to attempt, and is supremely confident in a healthy way. In the most recent season, his surgery is given a major technological upgrade as an AI system called 2.0 is installed.
Although he initially has some issues, Dr. Marcel soon merges the best of his skills, instincts, and experience, with the amazing software’s capabilities to make Gaffney Chicago Medical Center a world-renowned hospital capable of performing the kind of complex surgeries that most surgeons deem impossible. Played by Dominic Rains, with Dr. Marcel’s Cajun smoothness and southern charm on the show, he’s also one of the most likable characters, moreover, since he’s also a genuinely good person, in addition to being outstanding at his job.