Daniel H. Johnson, Jr., MD, is a seasoned medical practitioner who understands the intricacies of health policy. He is a diagnostic radiologist in Metairie, Louisiana, who was invited in July 2020 to again become a Visiting Fellow for the Heritage Foundation.

Dr. Johnson is a former president of the World Medical Association, having served as President in 1998-99. He served as President of the American Medical Association (AMA) in 1996-97. He was previously Vice-Speaker then Speaker of the House of Delegates of the AMA. He also served as Vice Speaker, Speaker and President of the Louisiana State Medical Society. He is a Delegate to the AMA House of Delegates from the American College of Radiology. He also is a Fellow of the American College of Radiology.

Dr. Johnson has a subspecialty interest in head and neck imaging and was a co-founder and later President of the American Society of Head and Neck Radiology. In 1997, he received the Gold Medal Award from the Radiological Society of North America. In 2000, he received the Gold Metal Award from the American Society of Head and Neck Radiology. 

In 2013, he was given the Leadership Luminary Award of the Radiology Leadership Institute. He has also received the Distinguished Service Award from the Louisiana State Medical Society and the Gold Medal Award from the New Orleans Radiology Society.

Dr. Johnson has a continuing interest in financing of health care. He has lectured extensively on using pluralism and patient choice to improve the cost effectiveness of our health care system. He has served on the Louisiana Health Care Commission as well as two different governor’s task forces to reform Louisiana’s state employee benefits program. He chaired the Health Care Transition Advisory Council for then Louisiana Governor–elect Bobby Jindal in 2007.

He previously served for many years as a Visiting Fellow in Health Policy at the Heritage Foundation. In 2020, he was invited to participate in a small work group advising Heritage on policy with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic, authoring or co-authoring several articles on various aspects of the pandemic, including utilizing choice in response to the pandemic, testing, achieving balance the needs of public health with the need to protect our robust economy and repurposing segments of the health care system during a pandemic.

Dr. Johnson received his MD degree from the University of Texas at Galveston in 1963 and completed one year of surgical internship at that same institution in 1964. In 1994, he was named an Ashbel Smith Distinguished Alumnus of his medical school. After two years in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, including service in Viet Nam as a general duty medical officer, he trained in Diagnostic Radiology at the Ochsner Foundation Hospital and was their 2004 Alumnus of the Year. He was the first resident to receive the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Owl Club at Tulane University School of Medicine.

Dr. Johnson resides with his wife, Sally Goodyear, in New Orleans and in Abita Springs, Louisiana.