Daniel E. Ford

Daniel E. Ford is a Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with joint appointments in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Health Policy and Management and Epidemiology. He serves as Director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research and Senior Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Research at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Dr. Ford received his MD from State University of New York at Buffalo in 1982 and has been on the Johns Hopkins faculty since then, except for a brief period as a National Institutes of Health fellow. He earned his Master's in Public Health from the Bloomberg School in 1986. He has published more than 120 research papers and book chapters and served as associate editor of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Dr. Ford is widely regarded as a pioneer in research on the interrelationships between mental disorders and chronic medical conditions. His research interests focus on depression and coronary artery disease, improving care for patients with medical comorbidity, and exploring how information technology can be used to improve care for patients with depression and tobacco abuse. He was one of the first investigators to document depression as a risk factor for myocardial infarction and stroke. His work includes developing web-assisted interventions for tobacco cessation and studying seasonal patterns in mental health information seeking.

His research demonstrates strong interdisciplinary connections between mental health, cardiology, epidemiology, and digital health technologies. The publications show a consistent focus on translating research findings into practical clinical applications, particularly through information technology solutions. His work spans clinical trials, epidemiological studies, implementation science, and digital health innovation.

• David M. Levine Professor of Medicine (2005)

Dr. Ford has been instrumental in developing clinical research infrastructure at Johns Hopkins, working closely with personnel who developed e-IRB, an electronic process for submitting research proposals to the Institutional Review Board. He has been principal researcher on a large training grant to develop researchers in general internal medicine and was chosen by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to direct the evaluation of its $12 million Depression in Primary Care Initiative. He advocates treating human research subjects as partners in the research process.

His laboratory research focuses on understanding relationships between depression and various chronic medical conditions, with recent emphasis on depression and coronary artery disease. The Ford Lab explores how information technology can be used to improve care for patients with depression and tobacco abuse, with interest in moving these interventions into the commercial world.