SUMMARY
John M. Davis III, M.D., is a clinical-translational rheumatologist. Dr. Davis focuses his research on understanding why patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases can have different signs and symptoms, outcomes, and treatment responses. He also studies why some adults develop inflammatory presentations that are not fully explained by existing disease classifications.
Dr. Davis uses a patient-centered, phenotype-led approach that combines detailed clinical characterization with patient-reported outcomes, longitudinal follow-up, genetics, biomarkers and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled analysis of clinical data. Rheumatoid arthritis provides the established foundation for this work. NOD2-associated inflammatory phenotypes provide an emerging model for understanding how genetic variation contributes to clinically diverse adult-onset inflammatory disease.
Dr. Davis' long-term goal is to translate more-precise clinical and biological characterization into better diagnosis, monitoring and treatment.
Focus areas
Rheumatoid arthritis and precision phenotyping. Through his research in rheumatoid arthritis, Dr. Davis has examined:
- Cardiovascular complications and multimorbidity.
- Biomarkers of treatment response and disease outcomes.
- Patient-physician discordance.
- Patient-reported outcomes.
- Pain.
- Other dimensions of disease burden.
Dr. Davis' current work asks why some patients continue to experience substantial symptoms or impaired health despite treatment. He also explores whether clinically similar patients have differing inflammatory, noninflammatory or mixed contributors to their disease burdens. The goal is to identify reproducible patient subgroups that can improve disease assessment and support more-individualized treatment decisions.
- Rheumatoid arthritis cohorts and translational discovery. Dr. Davis directs the benefactor-funded Mark E. and Mary A. Davis Initiative in Rheumatoid Arthritis Research. This is a collaborative program connecting scientific discovery, translational research and clinical application. A foundational component is the Mayo Clinic Rheumatoid Arthritis Cohort, a longitudinal cohort and biorepository that integrates clinical information, patient-reported outcomes, digital data and biospecimens. The initiative supports collaborative studies of disease mechanisms, biomarkers, clinically meaningful disease subgroups, persistent symptoms, multimorbidity and treatment outcomes.
NOD2-associated inflammatory phenotypes. Dr. Davis investigates how NOD2 genetic variation relates to inflammatory and multisystem phenotypes in adults, particularly when clinical presentations are not fully explained by established disease classifications.
Through his research, Dr. Davis uses genotype-first identification, structured clinical phenotyping and longitudinal follow-up to define the range and variability of these presentations. This work includes phenotypes described as Yao syndrome while also seeking to identify and link other reproducible NOD2-associated patterns to meaningful biological differences, clinical outcomes or treatment responses.
Genotype-first and AI-enabled translational discovery. Dr. Davis and his collaborators use genetic information and AI-enabled analysis of longitudinal clinical data to identify candidate patient populations and disease patterns that may be difficult to recognize through conventional methods alone.
These computational approaches are followed by detailed clinical review, structured phenotyping, patient-reported assessment and longitudinal validation. Dr. Davis and his team then investigate biomarkers and mechanisms when supported by clinical, genetic or preliminary biological evidence, with the long-term goal of enabling biomarker-informed, pathway-directed treatment studies.
Significance to patient care
Patients with rheumatic diseases do not always fit neatly within a single diagnosis. Some people may have features of more than one condition. Others may have an inflammatory illness that does not yet match a known disease category. Even among people with the same diagnosis, symptoms, disease course and response to treatment can vary. Persistent symptoms may be related to inflammation, other causes or a combination of both.
Dr. Davis studies these areas of uncertainty. He combines careful clinical assessment and patient experiences with long-term health information, genetics and biomarkers. He looks for reliable patterns among patients and asks whether those patterns are linked to meaningful biological differences.
The goal is to give patients and their care teams better information about what may be driving each person's illness. They can use that knowledge to make more-precise decisions about diagnosis, monitoring and treatment.
Professional highlights
- Mayo Clinic:
- Director, Mark E. and Mary A. Davis Initiative in Rheumatoid Arthritis Research, 2025-present.
- Chair, Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, 2024-present.
- Enterprise director, Rheumatology Specialty Council, 2022-2026.
- Top Performing Provider in Patient Experience, 2020, 2021.
- Associate editor, Journal of Rheumatology, 2017-present.
- Section editor, Rheumatology, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2018-2026.
- Safety officer, Data Safety and Monitoring Board, "Treatments Against Rheumatoid Arthritis and Effect on FDG PET CT: The TARGET Trial," National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, 2017-2022.