Peter Rhee

Dr. Peter Rhee is a professor of surgery in the College of Medicine at The University of Arizona, where he served as chief of the Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, Burns, and Emergency Surgery from 2007 to 2016 and as vice chair for clinical affairs in the Department of Surgery. He also held the Martin Gluck Professorship in Surgery and received a $2 million endowment. Prior to his appointment at The University of Arizona, Rhee completed a 24-year career in the United States Navy, retiring as captain in 2007. His military service included directing the Navy Trauma Training Center at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center, deployments as one of the first battlefield surgeons at Camp Rhino in Afghanistan in 2001, and establishing the first surgical unit in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2005. Earlier positions encompassed professorships at the University of Southern California and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

Rhee earned a B.S. in Health Systems Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1983 (summa cum laude), an M.D. from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in 1987, an M.P.H. from the University of Washington in 1995, and a Diploma in Medical Care of Catastrophes from the Society of Apothecaries of London in 1999. He completed a surgical internship at Balboa Naval Hospital (1987-1988), general surgery residency at the University of California, Irvine (1988-1992), and fellowship in trauma and critical care at Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington (1993-1995). His research specializations include trauma surgery, hemorrhage control, resuscitation, coagulopathy, trauma outcomes, emergency department thoracotomy, rhabdomyolysis, and geriatric trauma. Key publications include the memoir Trauma Red: The Making of a Surgeon in War and in America's Cities (2014); co-edited Surgical Critical Care and Emergency Surgery: Clinical Questions and Answers, Second Edition (2018); 50 Landmark Papers Every Acute Care Surgeon Should Know (2019); and highly cited papers such as "Damage control resuscitation: directly addressing the early coagulopathy of trauma" (2007, 1728 citations) and "Increasing trauma deaths in the United States" (2014, 646 citations). With over 387 peer-reviewed publications, Rhee has significantly influenced trauma care practices. He served on the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, multiple editorial boards, and national committees including the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium protocol review board. Notably, he led the surgical team treating U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords after the 2011 Tucson shooting.