Next Generation Leadership at Stanford Acute Care Surgery

Acute care surgery (ACS), as a surgical subspecialty and a health care paradigm, has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past few years, based on the increasing recognition that patients presenting with emergency surgical conditions have unique challenges and vulnerabilities that often test the limits of knowledge, judgment, technical skills, interdisciplinary teamwork, leadership, and systems performance.  Surgeons at Stanford, including Drs. David Spain and Kristan Staudenmayer, through their academic contributions and leadership, have been architects of ACS development in North America and around the world, and have established Stanford ACS as a thought leader and role model for national ACS systems. With a few key recruitments and appointments, and an evolving organizational structure, the Stanford Section of Acute Care Surgery is poised to imagine, innovate, and lead across the five pillars of ACS.  The Section is excited to introduce its next generation organizational structure and leadership to the Stanford community. 

Trauma
On September 1, 2024, Dr. Joe Forrester accepted the role of Trauma Medical Director (TMD) of Stanford’s level 1 trauma center. Dr. Forrester, a Stanford General Surgery Residency and Surgical Critical Care graduate, will continue the momentum he helped to establish as Associate TMD, as Stanford continues to pursue excellence in trauma care for its patients and its catchment populations across Northern California.  Dr. Forrester is joined by Dr. Ariel Knight, who has assumed the role of Associate TMD. Dr. Knight, who is a graduate of the University of Washington School of Medicine, the Mayo Clinic General Surgery Residency Program, and the UCSF Acute Care Surgery Fellowship Program, brings a track record of clinical excellence and a fresh perspective to the trauma program 

Surgical Critical Care
On August 1, 2024, Dr. Lisa Knowlton accepted the role of Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit, bringing a stellar academic record (McGill Medical School, University of British Columbia General Surgery, Stanford Surgical Critical Care), and world-class accomplishments as a clinical investigator, to lead an already high functioning ICU. Under her guidance, Stanford Surgical Critical Care embarks on a new era of quality improvement and scientific discovery.

Emergency General Surgery (EGS)
EGS, which carries a day-to-day census of over 30 complex patients, does four to six operative cases, and sees 12 new consults from the emergency department and across the hospital, has emerged as one of Stanford’s busiest surgical services. On September 1, 2024, Dr. Aussama Nassar became the first ever Medical Director of the EGS Service. He has already outlined a strategy to align this up-and-coming service with newly emerging national standards for EGS and to harness innovative informatics and data science approaches to build data architectures that will inform continuous quality improvement and groundbreaking research. Dr. Nassar is joined by Dr. Cassie Sonntag, a graduate of medical school at USC, surgical training at Penn State, and ACS fellowship at UCSF, who assumed the role of Associate Director of the EGS Service. Dr. Sonntag is already beginning to transform the educational experience on the service through fundamental redesigns of ACS Morning Report and ACS Academic Half Day. 

General Surgery
ACS’s fourth pillar provides general surgical care to patients with debilitating sub-acute conditions, who can often be overlooked in their communities and by siloed healthcare systems. Under the leadership of Dr. Jamie Tung, a graduate of Tufts Medical School, Maine Medical Center General Surgery, and UCSF Fresno ACS Fellowship, the Stanford Acute Care Surgery Clinic has grown to skillfully manage a waitlist of upwards of 400 patients with efficiency and compassion. During his short tenure to date, Dr. Tung has brought advanced minimally invasive surgery and robotics to the practice, substantially grown the number of surgeons and APPs that staff the clinic, and helped to launch an ACS clinic at Stanford Tri-Valley. 

Surgical Rescue
Surgical Rescue, which is a systems-based approach to complications and critical events in acute care hospitals, is a cross-cutting theme in ACS and an important horizontal service and safety net for acute care hospitals that provide complex and high-risk care to vulnerable patients. Optimization of surgical rescue which involves anticipation and prevention of crises as well as early intervention and crisis mitigation, will increasingly require data structures that predict risk and measure performance. Stanford ACS, including Drs. Morad Hameed (Section Chief) and Kristan Staudenmayer (Associate Section Chief), is taking a close look at how clinical informatics, predictive analytics, data science, and AI can provide uniquely Stanford insights into the future of ACS systems.

With 15 surgeons, 10 APPs, and 3 fellows; and close to 200 operative cases and 400 trauma activations  each month, ACS at Stanford is busy and full of opportunity. And with new leaders, a great diversity of perspective, and a unifying and defining commitment to bring systematic and state of the art care to all patients, Stanford ACS is ready to embark on the next phase of its phenomenal journey.

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About Stanford Surgery

The Stanford University Department of Surgery is dedicated to inventing the future of surgical care through:

• pioneering cutting-edge research, 
• developing the next generation of leaders, and 
• healing through incomparable surgical skills and compassion. 

To learn more, please visit surgery.stanford.edu