The Silver Lining: Wartime Transformation and Translation of Trauma Care
Colonel USAF MC Deputy Commander US Army Institute of Surgical Research
A Kansas native and graduate of the University of Kansas, Colonel (Dr.) Todd E. Rasmussen received his medical school training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota as an Air Force Health Professions Scholar from 1989-1993. He performed his surgical training at Wilford Hall United States Air Force Medical Center on Lackland Air Force Base, Texas from 1993 to 1999, accomplishing a one-year research fellowship at Mayo during his residency.
Colonel Rasmussen completed vascular surgery fellowship training at Mayo in 2001 and was assigned to Washington, DC. Soon after 9/11, Colonel Rasmussen began caring for combat injured returning to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, while also completing a two-year assignment at the nation’s military medical academy (The Uniformed Services University in Bethesda).
Colonel Rasmussen deployed as a surgeon to Operation Iraqi Freedom, and completed subsequent tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as combat surgical teaching missions in Morocco and Pakistan.
Highly decorated for his contributions to military surgery, Colonel Rasmussen has served as Chief of the San Antonio Military Vascular Surgery Service and the Division of Surgery at Wilford Hall.
In the summer of 2010, Colonel Rasmussen was appointed Deputy Commander of the US Army’s Institute of Surgical Research, where he practices as a vascular surgeon and directs the vascular injury and hemorrhage control research program. Colonel Rasmussen leads broader initiatives aimed at optimizing combat casualty care, including device innovation and development and technology transfer.
Colonel Rasmussen’s greatest passions, proudest achievements and most enjoyable moments relate to his wife Debra and their three children Cena, Harrison and Charles, without whom none of the aforementioned adventures would have been even remotely possible.
