Henri R. Ford, MD, MHA

Vice President and Chief of Surgery, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
Vice-Dean, Medical Education - Professor and Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs, Department of Surgery, Keck School of Medicine of USC 


Henri R. Ford, M.D., is vice president and chief of surgery at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), Vice-Dean of Medical Education, Professor and Vice chair for clinical affairs in the Department of Surgery and at the Keck School of Medicine.

Dr. Ford was professor and chief of the Division of Pediatric Surgery and surgeon-in-chief at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine prior to joining CHLA in January 2005.

Dr. Ford is a member of the Executive committee of the board of trustees of CHLA and a member of the board of directors of the University Children’s Medical Group. He is also a member of the Executive Leadership Team and the medical executive committee of CHLA. As surgeon-in-chief and vice president for Surgical and Perioperative Services, he oversees the entire perioperative services area at CHLA. Under his leadership, CHLA has developed a robust, state of the art minimally invasive surgery program.

As a professor in the Department of Surgery at the Keck School of Medicine, he is an important role model for young physicians and medical students. As the Vice Dean for Medical Education at the Keck School, Dr. Ford advances the medical school’s educational mission by promoting excellence in medical education as one of its highest priorities. Dr. Ford recently led a very successful accreditation visit for the MD program which resulted in the maximum eight-year, full accreditation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the best results achieved since a 10-year accreditation was granted in 1981. Dr. Ford’s current priorities include revising the Year III/IV medical student curriculum; strengthening research opportunities for medical students; and developing new sources of funding for medical student scholarships.

Dr. Ford has demonstrated “…truly exceptional leadership…” in pediatric surgery and has conducted the definitive studies on pediatric trauma in the United States and his investigative studies have generated new insights into the pathogenesis of necrotizing enterocolitis, the most common and the most lethal disorder affecting the gastrointestinal tract of newborn infants.

Dr. Ford has been active on local and national professional and scientific committees:

• Association for Academic Surgery, including service as secretary (1999-2001); president-elect (2001-02); and president (2002-03). 
  
  
• Society for Black Academic Surgeons, including service on the program committee (2000-02) and secretary (2002-2007); President-Elect 2009, and President 2010.
  
  
• Surgical Infections Society, including service on the education and fellowship committee (1998-01); councilor (2001-04); Treasurer (2006-present); President-Elect 2009, and President 2010.
  
  
• American College of Surgeons, Southwestern Pennsylvania Chapter, including service on the program committee (1998-01; chair, 2000-01) council chair (2001-04); president-elect (2003-2004); Board of Governors (2006-present); Nominating Committee of the Board of Governors (2006-present);Chair of the Nominating Committee of the Board of Governors (2008-2010); Surgical Forum Committee (2007-present); Program Committee (2008-Present); Vice-Chair of the Board of Governors (2010-2011); Vice Chair of Board of Governor, American College of Surgeons (2010-2011).
  
  
• Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma, including service on the bylaws committee (2000-present) and the Board of Directors (2005-2008).
  
  
• American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (2004-present).
  
  
• American Pediatric Surgical Association nominating committee (2006-2007)
  
  
• American Board of Surgery (2007-present)
  
  
• Los Angeles Surgical Society – (2006-present)
  
  
• The Halsted Society – (2007-present)
  
  
• American Pediatric Surgical Association Board of Governors (2008-Present)
  

Dr. Ford’s research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through the Injury Free Coalition for Kids, the National Trauma Registry for Children and the American College of Surgeons. He also has received industry support for his research from Ethicon, Inc., Medinox Corporation and the H.J. Heinz Co.

He is the author of more than 300 publications, book chapters, invited manuscripts, abstracts and presentations.

Dr. Ford is a member of the editorial board of numerous professional publications, including Pediatric Critical Care Medicine (2001-04), Surgery (2001-04), the Journal of Surgical Research (2001-2005), Surgical Infections (1998-present), the Journal of Pediatric Surgery (2005-present), Pediatric Surgery International (2005-present). He is now Associate Editor of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery (July 2010).

He has been an ad hoc reviewer for numerous other professional publications, including Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology (2002-present), the Journal of Leukocyte Biology (2002-present), the Canadian Journal of Gastroenterology (2002-present), Cancer Detection and Prevention (2001-present), the Journal of the American Medical Association (2001-present), Gastroenterology (2000-present), the American Journal of Physiology: Gastrointestinal & Liver Physiology (2000-present), the Journal of Trauma (2000-present), the Journal of Immunology (2000-present), Shock (2000-present), the Journal of Surgical Research (2000-present), Digestive Diseases (1999-present), the Journal of Pediatric Surgery (1997-present) and the Archives of Surgery (1996-present).

Dr. Ford is a fellow of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Surgeons.

He is a member of numerous professional and scientific societies, including the Surgical Biology Club, the American Surgical Association, the American Physiological Society, the British Association of Pediatric Surgeons, the American Trauma Society, the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the American Pediatric Surgical Association, the Society of University Surgeons, the Shock Society, the Surgical Infections Society, the Society of Black Academic Surgeons and the Association for Academic Surgery.

Dr. Ford received his bachelor’s degree in public and international affairs, cum laude, from Princeton University in 1980.  He received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1984. He received his M.H.A. (Master of Health Administration) degree from the School of Policy, Planning and Development from University of Southern California in 2009.

Dr. Ford did his internship (1984-85) and residency (1985-87; 1989-91) in general surgery at New York Hospital Cornell Medical College. He completed a research fellowship in immunology (1987-89) in the Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh.