Dr. David W. Ford Profile Picture
Part of The Vail Health Surgical Associates Team

David W. Ford, MD, FACS

Trust an expert With 25+ years of experience

Dr. David W. Ford has the education, advanced training, and experience you should look for when considering the treatment of a potentially life-altering illness or injury.

Dr. Ford graduated from Hendrix College in Conway, AR with distinction in Biology and then completed his medical degree from the University of Tennessee Medical Center in 1992. He completed his General Surgery Residency at the Medical University of South Carolina. He is Board Certified in Surgery, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a member of the Southeastern Surgical Congress.

Dr. David W. Ford | Board-Certified Surgeon

Areas of Expertise

Colectomy

Colectomy

Colon Removal
A surgical procedure to remove a diseased portion of colon from either colon cancer, polyps too big to be removed with a colonoscopy, or diverticulitis.
Ventral Hernia Thumbnail

Ventral Hernia Repair

A procedure to repair a hernia in the abdominal wall.
Inguinal Hernia Thumbnail

Inguinal Hernia Repair

A procedure to repair a hernia in the groin area.
Incisional Hernia Thumbnail

Incisional Hernia Repair

Reparation of a bulge through the healed incision of a previous surgery in your abdomen.
Umbilical Hernia

Umbilical Hernia Repair

A procedure that fixes a bulge or pouch that forms in the abdominal wall near the belly button.
Hiatal Hernia

Hiatal Hernia Repair

A hiatal hernia is a type of hernia in which abdominal organs slip through the diaphragm into the middle compartment of the chest.
Gall Bladder Removal

Cholecystectomy

Gall Bladder Removal
A surgical procedure to remove your gallbladder — a pear-shaped organ that sits just below your liver on the upper right side of your abdomen.
Adrenalectomy

Adrenalectomy

Adrenal Gland Removal
A surgical procedure to remove one or both adrenal glands. Tumors or disease to the adrenals may inhibit hormone production or produce excessive hormone levels, causing a variety of symptoms.
Nissen Fundoplication

Nissen Fundoplication

Acid Reflux Surgery
A surgical procedure to prevent stomach acid from reflux into the esophagus causing injury and pain not relieved by medication.

Robotic-Assisted Surgery

"The da Vinci Surgical System allows me to make smaller incisions, resulting in reduced risk of infection, minimize scarring, reduce pain, and accelerate recovery time, allowing my patients to return to normal activities more quickly."
David W. Ford, MD, FACS
da Vinci Surgical System

da Vinci® Robotic Surgical System

Da Vvinci Surgical System

Surgical robotics for minimally invasive surgery

As a Board-Certified General Surgeon, Dr. David W. Ford operates with a minimally invasive robotic surgical system for a wide variety of procedures. This minimally invasive approach only requires a few small incisions that doctors use to insert surgical equipment and a camera for viewing.

Da Vinci surgical systems are comprised of three components: surgeon console, patient-side cart, and vision cart.

Patient Cart

The patient-side cart is positioned near the patient on the operating table. It is where the instruments used during the operation move in real time in response to your surgeon’s hand movements at the surgeon console.

A camera provides a high-definition, 3D magnified view inside your body. Every hand movement your surgeon makes is translated by the da Vinci system in real time to bend and rotate the instruments with precision.

Vision Cart

The vision cart makes communication possible between the components of the system possible, and supports the 3D High Definition vision system.

Surgeon Console

The surgeon console is where I sit during the procedure, have a crystal-clear 3DHD view of your anatomy, and controls the robotic instruments. Through a few small incisions, the tiny instruments are "wristed" and move like a human hand, but with a far greater range of motion.

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