Stephanie Ford, MD

About

Stephanie Ford, MD, earned her BA from Case Western Reserve University, with honors in Biochemistry, then her MD from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. She then completed her pediatric residency and fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Ford is a physician scientist with appointments at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital divisions of Neonatology and Pediatric Cardiology and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Both her clinical and research interests center on the etiology and treatment of neonatal congenital heart diseases (CHDs). Dr. Ford’s research has been supported by the Congenital Heart Collaborative centered at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland and Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Severe CHDs have an enormous impact on children and their families as there are seldom cures, only palliation, which carries significant morbidity and mortality. Dr. Ford’s position at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital gives her the unique opportunity to tackle CHDs from the perspective of both a researcher and physician.

Dr. Ford has over 11 years of hands-on laboratory training in a broad range of laboratory techniques from her undergraduate, medical school, and fellowship training years. The last six years, her research has focused on optical pacing and ethanol exposure models of CHDs, with the goal of determining the underlying factors responsible for CDHs. She was the first to directly link abnormal blood flow measurements in vivo during early cardiogenesis to smaller endocardial cushions (primitive valves) and later CHDs. Her research determined that abnormal blood flow, without any outside surgical or drug exposure, can by itself have significant impact on the early tubular heart, leading to clinically significant CHDs. Dr. Ford is also investigating the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on early cardiac blood flow and links to CHDs. She is exploring how prenatal alcohol exposure causes epigenetic changes, how epigenetics is related to CHDs, and how prenatal alcohol exposure-induced CHDs can be prevented with prenatal supplements. Her unique collaborations with the Biomedical Engineering Department at Case Western Reserve University allow her to connect diverse fields, linking embryonic blood flow to cardiac function, epigenetic changes, and subsequent 3-D structure of CHDs.