Our History
Since 1969, Sanford Guide has provided health care professionals with comprehensive evidence-based recommendations designed for use at the point of care. Created by Jay P. Sanford, M.D. in 1969, the Sanford Guide was the outgrowth of a medical grand rounds handout on newer antibacterial agents. While Sanford Guide's content, ubiquity, and delivery platforms have expanded over time, it continues to be edited by a team of leaders in the field, and remains the most trusted name in the treatment of infectious diseases.
Jay P. Sanford, M.D. (1928-1996)
Jay Philip Sanford earned his medical degree from the University of Michigan in 1952. He completed his residency and fellowship training at Harvard Medical School (Brigham Hospital) and Duke University Hospital. Dr. Sanford served in the U.S. Army as Chief of the Bacteriology Section at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, DC. In 1957, he joined the faculty of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, TX. From 1957 to 1975 he taught at Southwestern, was chief of the infectious diseases service and director of the bacteriology lab at Parkland Hospital. In 1975, he was appointed Dean of the new Uniformed Services University (USUHS) of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD. He served as Dean and later President of USUHS until 1991. He then returned to the faculty of Southwestern Medical School as Professor of Medicine. He served as Chairman of the American Board of Internal Medicine, President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, a Master in the American College of Physicians. Dr. Sanford was a Colonel (MC) in the U.S. Army Reserve assigned to the 11th Special Forces Group (Airborne) until the time of his death. He received numerous awards and honors including the Medaille d'Honneur from the government of France and the distinguished public service medal from the Department of Defense.
Transition to a New Generation (1995-Present)
In 1995, Dr. Sanford handed responsibility for managing the company to his son Jeb C. Sanford. Formerly an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, Jeb worked with his stepson Scott D. Kelly to develop the company's first customer database, allowing the business to grow while improving customer service. Jeb also led the company's development of one of the first healthcare mobile apps in 2001, when Sanford Guide released versions of its guidelines for use on Pocket PC and Palm Pilot devices.
In 2011, Sanford made another leap forward when it released a vastly expanded library of guidelines, this time for use on the newly released iPhone and Android mobile phones, and on the web. Since that time, Sanford Guide's digital products have undergone a series of iterative improvements, with new guidelines and functionality added each year. In addition to its core products, Sanford Guide has also produced mobile apps in collaboration with the IDSA and SHEA, an internal medicine app in collaboration with Dr. Robert Lederman, and to this day, collaborates with the European AIDS Clinical Society to produce EACS mobile apps and an EACS guidelines website.
In 2017, Sanford Guide released Stewardship Assist, a suite of tools that allow hospitals and health systems to disseminate their local guidelines and antibiograms alongside Sanford Guide's core content. In 2020, Sanford Guide released one of the first dosing calculators for Vancomycin using the newly approved AUC24 methodology. More recently, Sanford Guide has released new versions of its apps designed to support regional health systems, and also built out its Stewardship Assist platform to better support large health systems.
