Dr. Ward is a Professor in the Departments of Emergency Medicine and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan. He received his B.S. in Physiology from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge in 1985 and his degree in medicine from Tulane University in New Orleans, LA in 1989. Dr. Ward then completed a residency in Emergency Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh followed by a Resuscitation Research fellowship at the Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. Prior to joining the University of Michigan in 2012, Dr. Ward was Professor and Associate Chair of Emergency Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) were he also founded and directed the VCU Reanimation Engineering Science Center (VCURES).
Dr. Ward’s research interests span the field of critical illness and injury ranging from combat casualty care to the intensive care unit. His approach is to develop and leverage broad platform technologies capable of use throughout all echelons of care of the critically ill and injured as well as in all age groups. Dr. Ward’s work has been funded by the NIH, Department of Defense, NSF, and industry. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. He is the recipient of the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine’s Excellence in Research Award as well as the American College of Emergency Physicians Outstanding Contributions in Research Award.
Dr. Ward’s passion is in creating programs which encourage true integration across the disciplines of medicine, engineering, data sciences, and entrepreneurship that accelerate discovery to true patient impact. In addition to founding the Max Harry Weil Institute for Critical Care Research and Innovation(link is external)(link is external), he led the design and implementation of Michigan Medicine’s Fast Forward Medical Innovation(link is external)(link is external) (FFMI) program and served as its inaugural Executive Director from 2013-2018. He is a serial innovator and entrepreneur in the field of emergency and critical care medicine and the recipient of Innovation and Commercialization awards from Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Michigan Medical School, and the Department of Defense.
In collaboration with the U.S. Army and its Joint Special Operations Training Medical Center, Dr. Ward developed and medically directed special training programs, which have been responsible for providing clinical training to over 1000 Special Operation Combat Medics. For this work, Dr. Ward was awarded a Certificate for Patriotic Civilian Service by the Department of the Army and the Joint Special Operations Training Center. Dr. Ward also served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and its 948th Forward Resuscitation Surgical Team deploying to Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel and the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne).
Serving on numerous editorial and review boards in the field of resuscitation, emergency and critical care medicine, Dr. Ward also serves on the executive committee for the Trauma Hemostasis and Oxygenation Research(link is external)(link is external) (THOR).