David J. Ballard, MD, MSPH, PHD, FACP
David J. Ballard, MD, MSPH, PHD, FACP, is a global healthcare thought leader with extensive strategic and operational leadership across large healthcare systems. He is a board-certified internist and received his training at Mayo Clinic after obtaining degrees in economics, epidemiology, and medicine at the University of North Carolina, where he was a John Motley Morehead Scholar, the first merit scholarship program in the United States. Dr. Ballard was an associate professor at Mayo, an associate professor with tenure at the University of Virginia, and a professor of epidemiology and medicine with tenure at Emory University. He joined Baylor Health Care System (BHCS) in 1999 as its first chief quality officer (CQO) and, upon the merger of BHCS and Scott & White Health, became CQO of Baylor Scott & White Health (BSWH), Texas’ largest healthcare system with more than 1,000 clinical care sites, over 100 joint ventures, and an annual operating budget that exceeds $10 billion.
He served on the board of managers of The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano, the BSWH-Kessler/Select rehabilitation and long-term care joint venture board, the High Value Health Care Collaborative board, and the xG Health Advisory Board of Geisinger Health System. BHCS/BSWH recognitions under Dr. Ballard’s leadership included the Leapfrog Patient-Centered Care Award and the National Quality Healthcare Award of the National Quality Forum. He founded BSWH’s Value-Based Healthcare Global Institute, which provides performance improvement solutions globally. He joined Mentice AB’s executive team in January 2019 as executive vice president/chief clinical officer and president of Mentice, Inc. In August 2019, he was elected to the board of directors of Mentice AB, which had its initial public offering in June 2019 on the Nasdaq Nordic. In July 2020, he was appointed chief clinical officer and chair of the board of Concentric Health Alliance, a new C corporation dedicated to the provision of safe, timely, and high-value coronavirus pandemic personal protective equipment and other relevant medical supplies for healthcare systems and other organizations across the United States.
Dr. Ballard serves on the editorial boards of Health Services Research, as editor of the healthcare policy section of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, and as associate editor of Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality & Outcomes. He received the AcademyHealth New Investigator Award (the outstanding health services researcher under 40 years of age) and the John M. Eisenberg Article-of-the-Year in Health Services Research. His books, Achieving STEEEP Health Care and The Guide to Achieving STEEEP Health Care, received Shingo Research Awards for contributions to operational excellence.
He was founding head of the Mayo Section of Health Services Evaluation, founding president of the Kerr L. White Institute for Health Services Research, president of the International Society for Quality in Health Care, and chair of AHRQ’s Health Care Quality and Effectiveness Research study section. He was chair of AHRQ’s Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics Steering Committee and a member of AHRQ’s National Advisory Council. He served on the NQF National Quality Healthcare Award Blue Ribbon Review Panel and the National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Hospital Care: Specialty Physician Measures Panel, which he co-chaired. He co-chaired The Joint Commission’s Blood Management Performance Measures Advisory Panel and was an expert panelist for the American Idol in Medicine initiative of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.
Dr. Ballard served on the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health Foundation board and on Ascension’s Gulf Coast board as its Quality Committee chair. He served on the board of trustees of Lawrenceville School and of the Texas Hospital Association. Dr. Ballard received the Distinguished Alumnus Award of UNC’s School of Medicine in 2008 and the corresponding award in 2019 from UNC’s School of Public Health. He serves as an adjunct professor in the Health Policy and Management Department at UNC and is a UNC Chancellor’s Global Leadership Council member. In March 2021, he will complete an MBA through an MBA@UNC Program Merit Fellowship, the world’s #1 rated online MBA program.