Topics in Family Medicine and Primary Care

Professor of Medicine
Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University
Attending Physician
Jersey Shore University Medical Center Neptune, NJ
  Dr. David S. Kountz is a Professor of Medicine for the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine and Co-Chief Academic Officer for Hackensack Meridian Health. He earned his AB at Princeton, MD at SUNY/Buffalo School of Medicine, and MBA at Georgian Court University in Lakewood, NJ. He completed training in Internal Medicine at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia. 

A board-certified internist, Dr. Kountz has had progressive responsibilities in academic medicine as Associate Professor of Medicine at Temple University School of Medicine and Professor of Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. 

Dr. Kountz's research interests include hypertension treatment and guidelines in underserved populations, health literacy, pipeline programs and leadership development. He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, editorials and abstracts, and is a frequent speaker within and outside of his health network on a variety of topics in primary care. 

Dr. Ferentz graduated magna cum laude from SUNY at Albany, where he majored in Biology and Theater. He received his M.D. from SUNY at Buffalo School of Medicine, then completed his Family Practice residency at the University of Maryland, along with a fellowship in Faculty Development with an emphasis in Obstetrics. In 2012 Dr. Ferentz retired as an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine after 25 years on the faculty. During those years he served as the Director of Student and Employee Health, the Director of Clinical Operations for the department, and as Residency Director for 12 years. He went on to serve as the Chief Medical Officer for Baltimore Medical System, Inc. – the largest group of Federally Qualified Health Centers in Maryland, responsible for approximately 60 clinicians serving in six medical centers and eight school based health centers, caring for 45,000 patients and providing 155,000 visits per year. He then worked as the Medical Director of the Randallstown office of Chase Brexton Health Care. He is currently the Chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC) and the Lead Physician for the GBMC Health Partners Primary Care offices at Owings Mills. Dr. Ferentz is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Maryland and continues to educate medical students on a regular basis. Dr. Ferentz has authored more than three dozen articles and book chapters concerning issues in Family Medicine. His academic work centered on Smoking Cessation, and the recognition and treatment of Depression in primary care. He received more than two dozen teaching awards, including two national awards: the Exemplary Teaching Award from the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Outstanding Program Director Award from the Association of Family Practice Residency Directors. He was named one of the Best Family Physicians by Baltimore Magazine in 1997, 2000, 2002, 2007, 2010, 2017, 2018, and 2020. The Ladies Home Journal named him one of the best Family Physicians in America in 2002. He was named to Best Doctors in America in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2013. He appears in Who’s Who in America in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2011. Dr. Ferentz provides continuing medical education lectures for several national CME providers. Dr. Ferentz is a past-President of the Maryland Academy of Family Physicians and served on several committees and commissions for the American Academy of Family Physicians. He has done hundreds of media spots on TV and for eight years he was the regular host of Sunday Rounds, the largest medical call-in show on public radio, heard nationwide, and around the world on the Armed Forces Radio Network and the Internet.