July 28, 2005

Dear Colleagues:

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Daniel E. Ford, M.D., M.P.H., as the new Vice Dean for Clinical Investigation and anticipate that the trustees will vote to name him the new David M. Levine Professor.

Dan is uniquely qualified to oversee the clinical research enterprise at Hopkins . He's a pioneer in patient-oriented research associated with the interrelationships between mental disorders, particularly depression, and chronic medical conditions. He made an international name for his work in such groundbreaking clinical studies as documenting depression as an independent risk factor in developing coronary heart disease and describing the long term health risks related to sleep disturbances. Dan was recently selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to direct the evaluation of its $12 million Depression in Primary Care Initiative. And he is one of a handful of generalists who have served on National Institute of Mental Health clinical review groups. Additionally, Dan has been the Principal Investigator for 12 years of a training grant to develop researchers in general internal medicine and has been a leader in using the Internet for clinical research.

Perhaps most important for those of you involved in clinical research, he understands your concerns and is committed to resolving them. Recently, for example, he helped to develop the electronic IRB submission process.

Dan came to Hopkins in 1982 as an Osler resident and, except for a brief time as a National Institutes of Health fellow, has been on the faculty ever since. He joined the faculty of the Division of Internal Medicine in 1988 and has joint appointments in Psychiatry at the School of Medicine and in Epidemiology and Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has more than 120 publications and book chapters to his name, and was associate editor of the Journal of General Internal Medicine and a member of the editorial board of General Hospital Psychiatry .

In addition to his accomplishments in clinical work, research and teaching, Dan has served the University well in other capacities. He has been director of the University Health Service for 12 years and was a member of the oversight committee for the preventive medicine and occupational medicine residency programs. Dan uses the same equable approach in dealing with diverse and sensitive issues as his predecessor, Michael Klag. He served, for example, on the Committee for Faculty Development and Gender, has been a long term member of the Admissions Committee for the School of Medicine , and for ten years was on the General Clinical Research Center protocol and advisory committees. He also has been director of the Health Information Management Group that oversees use of the Hopkins brand name for commercial health information products targeted for the lay public.

We are extremely fortunate to have someone of Dan Ford's caliber to fill the shoes of Mike Klag, who developed the role of Vice Dean for Clinical Investigation before being honored with the appointment as Dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Please join me in providing all possible support to Dan and Mike as they tackle their enormously important new jobs.

Edward D. Miller, M.D.
Dean of the Medical Faculty
CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine