A Public Health Approach for Firearm Injury Prevention - September 12

Ronald Stewart, MD, FACS, Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery at UT Health San Antonio, and Medical Director, Trauma Programs, American College of Surgeons, will discuss the public health framework for firearm injury prevention and the need for federally funded public health research focused on firearm morbidity and mortality. Dr. Stewart will also describe work of the ACS committee on trauma and collaborative efforts to enhance research, education, and targeted injury prevention initiatives. 

Ronald M. Stewart, MD, FACS

Chair, Department of Surgery, UT Health San Antonio and Medical Director, American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (COT)

Ronald M. Stewart completed medical school and surgical residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He then completed a Trauma and Surgical Critical Care Fellowship at the University of Tennessee in Memphis. Returning to San Antonio in 1993, he built University Health System’s regional trauma program. He currently serves as the American College of Surgeons Medical Director of Trauma Programs and as the Chair of the Department of Surgery at UT Health San Antonio.

Over the past three decades, he has actively led the development of the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council’s integrated civilian-military trauma system that serves all of South Texas, covering more than 27,000 square miles. 

In 2001 Dr. Stewart was appointed by then Governor George W. Bush to the Texas Governors EMS and Trauma Advisory Council where he served for 15 years as the Chair of the Trauma Systems Committee. He was a founding member and the first Chair of the National Trauma Institute. For the past 20 years he has served on the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Committee on Trauma (COT), serving as the national Chair of the ACS Committee on Trauma from March 2014 to March 2018.  

In 2013 Dr. Stewart was the recipient of the National Safety Council’s Surgeons Award for Service to Safety, and the American College of Surgeon's Arthur Ellenberger Award for Excellence in State Advocacy. He is a past President of the Southwestern Surgical Congress and the immediate past President of the Texas Surgical Society. 

During his tenure as the ACS COT Chair, the COT developed a range of innovative firearm injury prevention programs and policy recommendations. They have done so by fostering an inclusive (all points of view), collegial dialogue centered on how best to reduce firearm injury, death and disability. This approach has led to a common narrative and strategy focused on understanding and addressing the root causes of violence while simultaneously making firearm ownership as safe as possible (for those who own a firearm and for those who do not).

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