Trauma & Acute Care Surgery

Selwyn O. Rogers, Jr., MD, MPH
Professor of Surgery
Chief, Section of Trauma & Acute Care Surgery
Founding Director, Trauma Center
Executive Vice President, Community Health Engagement
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The University of Chicago Medicine will become the latest premier trauma training site for U.S. Army physicians, nurses and medics ahead of their deployments in a unique partnership that seeks to share knowledge and experience.

U.S. Army to Train Military Healthcare Personnel at UChicago Medicine’s Level 1 Trauma Center

Through the Army Medicine Department (AMEDD) Military-Civilian Trauma Team Training (AMCT3) program, Army personnel serving on Forward Resuscitative Surgical Teams (FRSTs) will train at UChicago Medicine’s South Side trauma center. Together with their civilian counterparts, the experienced teams will provide critical care and trauma treatments to patients at the academic medical center located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.

The program provides Army medical personnel the opportunity to sharpen and maintain their clinical skills by working at leading trauma centers across the country while giving them a chance to collaborate and learn from their civilian colleagues. It also brings the military’s unparalleled medical experience to partnering trauma centers.

Army medical personnel will train at UChicago Medicine through embedded or short-term rotational assignments. Those who are embedded will live in Chicago and work as full-time staff for up to three years. Eventually, as many as 30 Army medical personnel will train in Chicago each year, including surgeons, emergency medicine physicians, emergency and critical care nurses, anesthesiologists and certified nurse anesthetists, combat medics, operating room technicians, licensed practical nurses and other surgical subspecialties.

“As an academic medical center, UChicago Medicine has long been committed to training the next generation of healthcare providers,”

Kenneth S. Polonsky, MD,
Dean and Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs
at the University of Chicago.

“Expanding our educational mission to include Army clinicians extends and builds upon that work and, in turn, brings the military’s experience treating blunt and penetrating wounds to our hospital, which benefits our trauma care teams, the broader organization and, ultimately, our patients.”

The Army launched its AMCT3 program in 2019. Today it operates seven AMCT3 training sites at busy trauma centers across the country, including Vanderbilt University Medical Center, University of North Carolina Medical Center, Cooper University Hospital, and Oregon Health & Science University Hospital, among others.

Exchanging best practices

The first cohort of Army clinicians—the 20-member 759th FRST—will begin arriving at UChicago Medicine from Fort Bragg in North Carolina as soon as this fall.

Lt. Col. Timothy Plackett, DO, MPH, a trauma surgeon, arrived in January 2021, ahead of the team. But his connection to Chicago started long before: Plackett grew up in the suburbs, attended Midwestern University Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine and did training rotations at South Side and south suburban hospitals, including Provident Hospital, Advocate Christ Medical Center and the now-closed Michael Reese Hospital. He joined the Army in 2003 and was eventually deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Before arriving at UChicago Medicine, he was commander of the 759th FRST that is joining the medical center.

“To be back home and be able to give back to the South Side community has been really important to me.”

Lt. Col. Timothy Plackett, DO, MPH
Clinical Associate of Surgery

In his first few months, Plackett has already performed about 50 percent more surgeries than he would have as an active-duty surgeon at a military hospital and cared for a wider variety of patients with different types of injuries and illnesses. He is also forging new relationships across the medical campus and the University of Chicago, where he’s already involved in several basic-science research projects.

“We’re learning best practices from one another and using what’s been learned in Iraq and Afghanistan to directly change the care we’re providing on the South Side,” he said. “And the care we’ll be providing on the South Side will directly change the care we’ll be able to provide when our team is deployed.”

An ‘ideal’ training environment

UChicago Medicine’s comprehensive trauma program cared for about 4,400 adult and pediatric patients in 2020, a 47 percent increase from the previous year. The majority of those patients—about 3,800—were cared for in the adult trauma center, which marked its three-year anniversary May 1, 2021. About 57 percent of the adult trauma patients had blunt trauma injuries from incidents such as car accidents and falls. An additional 41 percent had penetrating trauma wounds, often from shootings or stabbings, and 2 percent had other types of injuries, such as burns.

A case mix that includes everything from intentional violence to farm accidents makes UChicago Medicine an ideal training facility to ensure Army teams keep their skills fresh in a number of areas.

Kenneth L. Wilson, MD, medical director of UChicago Medicine’s trauma center, is also a military surgeon in the U.S. Army Reserve and was a driving force behind the new Army–UChicago Medicine partnership. After multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as his previous work at major U.S. trauma centers, Wilson recognizes the importance of this type of trauma training.

“When you’re on a military installation as a member of a medical team, you’re not doing a lot of trauma care every day. Military hospitals mainly provide healthcare services to a young healthy population, so there are rarely the types of injuries you’d see in a busy civilian trauma center that regularly treats people who’ve been in high-speed crashes or drive-by shootings. So, it can be a steep learning curve to go from that kind of environment to someplace like Syria,” Wilson said. “Hospitals like UChicago Medicine provide an ideal middle ground that lets the team train together, build their trauma ‘muscle memory’ and keep their skills fresh. So, they’ll be able to take the skills they learned here, get on a plane for deployment and immediately be able to save lives out there.”

Ashley Heher
Director, Media relations & Breaking News
The University of Chicago Medicine

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faculty listing

Professor of Surgery
Selwyn O. Rogers, Jr., MD, MPH, Professor of Surgery; Chief, Section of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery; James E. Bowman, Jr. Professor in the Biological Sciences; Founding Director, Trauma Center; Executive Vice President, Community Health Engagement
Susan Rowell, MD, MCR, Professor of Surgery; Co-Director, Surgical ICU; Program Director, Adult Surgical Critical Care Fellowship
Brian Williams, MD, Professor of Surgery
Kenneth L. Wilson, MD, Professor of Surgery; Trauma Medical Director; Program Director, Trauma Fellowship
Tanya L. Zakrison, MD, MPH, Professor of Surgery; Director, Critical Trauma Research

Assistant Professor of Surgery
Andrew Benjamin, MD, MS, Assistant Professor
Jennifer T. Cone, MD, MBA, MHS, Assistant Professor of Surgery; Associate Program Director, General Surgery Residency
David Hampton, MD, MEng, Assistant Professor of Surgery; Associate Clerkship Director, Surgery; Assistant Program Director, Adult Surgical Critical Care Fellowship
Priya Prakash, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery

Clinical Associate of Surgery
Timothy Plackett, DO, MPH, Clinical Associate of Surgery

faculty honors

Jennifer T. Cone, MD, MBA, MHS, was named an Associate Program Director for the general surgery residency program and earned the Robert Baker Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching. She became a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and earned FACS. She received the Provost’s Global Faculty Award with Osman Ahmed, MD, Department of Radiology, to partner with the University of Chicago Center in Delhi on “Advancing Trauma Care in India through a Combination of Surgical and Minimally Invasive Interventional Therapies.” She received a Bucksbaum Institute Pilot Grant for “Impact of substance use on the adolescent trauma population.”

David Hampton, MD, MEng, was appointed Associate Clerkship Director, Department of Surgery and Treasurer of the Chicago Metropolitan Trauma Society. He was named a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and an Associate Member, American Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

Priya Prakash, MD, received the Provost’s Global Faculty Award with Osman Ahmed, MD, Department of Radiology, to partner with the University of Chicago Center in Delhi on “Advancing Trauma Care in India through a Combination of Surgical and Minimally Invasive Interventional Therapies.” Dr. Prakash won the Swedish Teacher of the Year Award from the Swedish Medical Center. Dr. Prakash is an associate fellow for the Bucksbaum fellowship.

Selwyn O. Rogers, Jr., MD, MPH, was awarded a Bucksbaum Institute grant to develop a curriculum on structural justice in trauma. He received the inaugural James E. Bowman, Jr. Professorship and was named an editorial board member of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Brian Williams, MD, received the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma President’s Distinguished Service Award in January 2021. He was named Chair of the Structure and Communications Subcommittee for the American College of Surgeons Committee on Diversity. He received a Distinguished Leader in Diversity and Inclusion Award. This award honors faculty who have made outstanding contributions towards fostering a more diverse and inclusive community within the Biological Sciences Division. He also received a Gun Violence Prevention PAC Profiles in Courage Award. Dr. Williams was one of six fellows named to the 2021–22 class of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellows. Beginning in September, he will spend one year in Washington D.C., working on health-related legislative issues with members of Congress and the executive branch. His paper with Ashley Suah, MD, “How Should Clinicians Address a Patient’s Experience of Transgenerational Trauma?” appeared in the AMA Journal of Ethics. He was nominated for Outstanding Lecturer of the Year for his course Racial Disparities in Healthcare at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. Dr. Williams was invited to be keynote speaker at the Pritzker School of Medicine White Coat Ceremony. As Program Director for the Adult Surgical Critical Care Fellowship, he helped lead the team through a successful site visit that led to the ACGME approving the fellowship for the 2021 match.

Kenneth L. Wilson, MD, received a Bucksbaum Institute Pilot Grant: “Fasttrack for Abdominal Pain (‘FFAP’) Leading to Expedited Care.”

Tanya Zakrison, MD, MPH, was promoted to Professor of Surgery and was awarded a Bucksbaum Institute grant to develop a curriculum on structural justice in trauma. She presented research, “Recent Release From Prison: A Novel Risk Factor for Intimate Partner Homicide,” to the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Annual Meeting. The manuscript has been accepted for publication with the Journal of Trauma & Acute Care Surgery. She was invited for Grand Rounds at Central Michigan University, the University of Arizona and for the University of Kansas School of Medicine on “Why Black Lives Matter: Why Physicians (& All Of Us) Should Care.” She was invited as an international panelist for “Hepatic Trauma–Modern Concepts of Treatment,” for the International Online Congress Advances in Minimally Invasive Abdominal Surgery with 8,210 attendants from 64 countries. At Reunion Hospital San Juan de Dios, Santiago de Chile, she presented “Trauma contuso pancreático” and “Actividad academic virtual II cátedra de clínica quirúrgica–trauma torácico penetrante.” Dr Zakrison was Research and Education Committee Chair and Board Member for the PanAmerican Trauma Society Clinical Congress prepping of multiple panels and presentations. She was Co-Chair of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma’s Equity, Quality and Inclusion in Trauma Surgery Practice Committee, with the following publications in Annals of Surgery: “Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma Statement on Structural Racism, and the Deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor” and “Perceptions of Equity and Inclusion in Acute Care Surgery: from the #EAST4ALL Survey.” She was selected to receive the BSD Distinguished Community Service & Advocacy Award (senior faculty category), which recognizes highly talented members of our faculty for their dedication to the betterment of the community. This award recognizes her advocacy and activism in support of the underserved.

Faculty Promotions

Brian Williams, MD, Associate Professor to Professor, effective May 1, 2021

Kenneth L. Wilson, MD, Associate Professor to Professor, effective April 1, 2021

Tanya L. Zakrison, MD, MPH, Associate Professor to Professor, effective August 1, 2021

select publications

Jennifer T. Cone, MD, MBA, MHS

Cone JT, Benjamin ER, Alfson DB, Biswas S, Demetriades D. The effect of body mass index on outcomes following severe blunt chest trauma. Injury. 2020 Sep;51(9):2076-2081.

Keskey R, Cone JT, DeFazio JR, Alverdy JC. The use of fecal microbiota transplant in sepsis. Translational Research. 2020 Dec;226:12-25.

Keskey R, Hampton DA, Biermann H, Cirone J, Zakrison TL, Cone JT, Wilson KL, Slidell MB. Novel Trauma Composite Score is a More Reliable Predictor of Mortality Than Injury Severity Score In Pediatric Trauma. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2021 Apr 14. Online ahead of print.

David Hampton, MD, MEng

Cirone, J, Keskey R, Hampton D, Slidell M, Crandall M, Rattan R, Velopulos C, Allen D, Williams B, Wilson K, Zakrison T, Recent Release From Prison – A Novel Risk Factor for Intimate Partner Homicide. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2021 Jan 01; 90(1):107-112. (PMID: 33003014).

Mansour A, Loggini A, Goldenberg F, Kramer C, Naidech A, Ammar F, Vasenina V, Castro B, Das P, Horowitz P, Zakrison T, Hampton D, Rogers S, Lazaridis C, Coagulopathy as a Surrogate of Severity of Injury in Penetrating Brain Injury. J Neurotrauma 2021 Jan 20. (PMID: 33238820).

Keskey, R., Hampton, D., Biermann, H., Cirone, J., Zakrison, T., Cone, J., Wilson, K., Slidell, M. 2021. A Novel Trauma Composite Score Is a More Reliable Predictor of Mortality Than Injury Severity Score in Pediatric Trauma. Accepted to the J Trauma Acute Care Surg 2021 APR 14, Online ahead of print. (PMID:33871405).

Eaton B., Vesselinov, R.,Tobin, N., Ahmeti, M., Stansbury, J., Regner, J., Sadler, C., Nevarez, S., Lissauer, M., Stout, L., Harmon, L., Glassett, B., Hampton, D., Castro, H., Cunningham, K., Mulkey, S., O’Meara, L., Diaz, J., Bruns, B., Surgical Faculty Perception of Service-Based Advanced Practice Providers: A Southwestern Surgical Congress Multi-Center Survey. Am Surg. 2020 Dec 09 (PMID: 33295188).

Mansour A, Loggini A, Ammar F, Ginat D, Awad I, Lazaridis C, Kramer C, Vasenina V, Polster S, Huang A, Perez H, Das P, Horowitz P, Zakrison T, Hampton D, Rogers S, Goldenberg F, Cerebrovascular Complications in Early Survivors of Civilian Penetrating Brain Injury. Neurocrit Care. 2020 Oct 06 (PMID: 33025542).

Cirone, J., Keskey, R., Hampton, D., Slidell, M., Crandall, M., Rattan, R., Velopulos, C. G., Allen, D., Williams, B. H., Wilson, K., & Zakrison, T. L. (2021). Recent release from prison – A novel risk factor for intimate partner homicide. The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, 90(1), 107–112.

Timothy Plackett, DO, MPH

Nassoiy SP, Blackwell RH, Brown M, Kothari AN, Plackett TP, Kuo PC, Posluszny JA. Development of atrial fibrillation following trauma increases short term risk of cardiovascular events. J Osteopath Med. 2021;121:529-537.

Brown M, Nassoiy S, Plackett TP, Luchette F, Posluszny J. Red blood cell distribution width and outcomes in trauma patients. J Osteopath Med. 2021;121:221-228.

Priya Prakash, MD

Prakash PS, Moore SA, Rezende-Neto JB, Trpcic S, Dunn JA, Smoot B, Jenkins DH, Cardenas T, Mukherjee K, Farnsworth J, Wild J, Young K, Schroeppel TJ, Coimbra R, Lee J, Skarupa DJ, Sabra MJ, Carrick MM, Moore FO, Ward J, Geng T, Lapham D, Piccinini A, Inaba K, Dodgion C, Gooley B, Schwartz T, Shraga S, Haan JM, Lightwine K, Burris J, Agrawal V, Seamon MJ, Cannon JW. Predictors of retained hemothorax in trauma: Results of an Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma multi-institutional trial. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2020 Oct;89(4):679-685. PMID: 32649619.

Abbasi AB, Dumanian J, Okum S, Nwaudo D, Lee D, Prakash P, Bendix P. Association of a New Trauma Center With Racial, Ethnic, and Socioeconomic Disparities in Access to Trauma Care. JAMA Surg. 2020 Nov 25:e204998. doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2020.4998. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33237319.

Selwyn O. Rogers, Jr., MD, MPH

Mansour, A., Loggini, A., El Ammar, F. et al. Cerebrovascular Complications in Early Survivors of Civilian Penetrating Brain Injury. Neurocrit Care (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12028-020-01106-y.

Peek M, Simons R, Parker F, Ansell D, Rogers SO, Edmonds BT. COVID-19 Among African Americans: An Action Plan for Mitigating Disparities. American Journal of Public Health. Vol. 111; Issue 2, December 2020.

Susan Rowell, MD, MCR

SE Rowell, EN Meier, B McKnight, D Kannas, S May, K Sheehan, EM Bulger, AH Idris, J Christenson, LJ Morrison, RJ Frascone, PL Bosarge, MR Colella, J Johannigman, BA Cotton, J Callum, J McMullan, DJ Dries, B Tibbs, NJ Richmond, ML Weisfeldt, JM Tallon, JS Garrett, MD Zielinski, TP Aufderheide, RR Gandhi, R Schlamp, BR Robinson, J Jui, L Klein, S Rizoli, M Gamber, M Fleming, J Hwang, LE Vincent, C Williams, A Hendrickson, R Simonson, P Klotz, G Sopko, W Witham, M Ferrara, MA Schreiber, M. Prehospital Tranexamic Acid for Traumatic Brain Injury: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2020;324(10):1-14. doi10100.jama.2020.8958.

Brian Williams, MD

Tseng, E. S., Zakrison, T. L., Williams, B., Bernard, A. C., Martin, M. J., Zebib, L., Soklaridis, S., Kaafarani, H. M., Zarzaur, B. L., Crandall, M., Seamon, M. J., Winfield, R. D., Bruns, B., & the Equity, Quality, and Inclusion in Trauma Surgery Practice Ad Hoc Task Force of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (2020). Perceptions of Equity and Inclusion in Acute Care Surgery: From the #EAST4ALL Survey. Annals of surgery, 272(6), 906–910.

Tung, L., Long, A. M., Bonne, S., Tseng, E. S., Bruns, B., Joseph, B., Williams, B. H., Stein, D., Freischlag, J. A., Goulet, N., Khandelwal, C., Kiselak, E., Hoofnagle, M., Gelbard, R., Rattan, R., Joseph, D., Bernard, A., Zakrison, T. L., & Equity, Quality, and Inclusion in Trauma Surgery Practice Ad Hoc Task Force of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (2021). Equity on the frontlines of trauma surgery: An #EAST4ALL roundtable. The journal of trauma and acute care surgery, 90(1), 129–136.

Estime, S., Williams, B. (2021) Systemic Racism in America and the Call to Action, The American Journal of Bioethics, 21:2, 41-43.

Suah, A., Williams, B. (2021) How Should Clinicians Address a Patient’s Experience of Transgenerational Trauma? The American Journal of Ethics, 23(6):E440-445.

Tanya L. Zakrison, MD, MPH

residents & fellows

View the Surgical and Critical Care Residents and Fellows here.