Durkheim To Murthy: Understanding the Case for Social Connection

Sponsored by the Ewald W. Busse, MD, ScD Lectureship Endowment Fund Thomas K.M. Cudjoe, M.D., M.P.H., M.A. is the Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Endowed Professor, Associate Professor of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Cudjoe is the co-director of Medicine for the Greater Good and the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology's Director for Community Engagement. He leverages community-based strategies, mixed-methods and human centered design to understand and address social isolation. Dr. Cudjoe is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society and serves on the Scientific Advisory Council for the Foundation for Social Connection and as the co-lead of the Stakeholder Core for the Johns Hopkins Artificial Intelligence and Technology Collaboratory for Aging Research. Additionally, he has led studies that examined the prevalence of social isolation among older adults and associations between social isolation and health outcomes. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, and on Good Morning America. He is a Major in the US Army Reserve Corps. Dr. Cudjoe received his undergraduate degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology (summa cum laude) at Hampton University and was active in the Honors College and Army ROTC program. He graduated from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and earned a master's in public health in health policy at Harvard School of Public Health. He completed his internal medicine residency Internal Medicine at Howard University Hospital and clinical and research fellowship at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In 2023, Dr. Cudjoe completed a master's degree in social design at Maryland Institute College of Art.