David Gifford, MD, MPH, is a geriatrician who after working in various positions at the American Health Care Association (AHCA) for the past 15 years, set up his own consulting company, LTC-Success. He is co-author of LTC Success: How Senior care Communities Thrive Clinically and Financially. While at AHCA he served as the first Chief Medical Officer, created the Quality Department and established the Center for Health Policy and Evaluation in LTC as well as the EMR Data Cooperative. He also served as the Medical Director to over 10 Clinical Integrated Provider Networks and led the faculty for AHCA’s Leadership Academy.  He received the McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards ‘Industry Ally’ award in 2025 for assisting LTC providers navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.

 He is a former Director of the Rhode Island State Department of Health from 2005 to 2011, where he received the National Governor’s Distinguished Service Award for State Officials for his management of the H1N1 influenza outbreak. Prior to that, he served as Chief Medical Officer for Quality Partners of Rhode Island, where he directed the CMS national nursing home-based quality improvement effort.  He holds a faculty appointment at Brown University Medical School and School of Public Health and served as medical director in several nursing homes in Rhode Island. He received his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University and conducted his geriatric fellowship at UCLA, where he also earned his Master’s in Public Health while a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar.