EricAElsterMD

Summary

• Eric Elster, MD, FACS, CAPT, MC, USN (Ret.) serves as Dean of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) School of Medicine. Dr. Elster received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of South Florida in Tampa as a recipient of the U.S. Navy’s Health Professional Scholarship Program. Upon graduation, he completed a general surgery residency at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. Dr. Elster served as ship’s surgeon aboard the USS Kitty Hawk during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Upon returning from the Persian Gulf, he completed a solid organ transplantation fellowship at the National Institutes of Health; and then directed a translational research program at the Naval Medical Research Center in Silver Spring, MD, with a focus on developing improved diagnostics and therapies for serious traumatic injuries, transplantation, and advanced operative imaging. Now retired, Dr. Elster was last deployed as a surgeon and Director of Surgical Services at the NATO Role 3 Military Medical Unit in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Dr. Elster is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons; and a member of the Society of University Surgeons, American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the Southern Surgical Association, the Halsted Society, and the American Surgical Association. He has published over 200 scientific manuscripts in leading journals including JAMA, Annals of Surgery, American Journal of Transplantation, and Science Translational Medicine, and has received numerous research grants spanning all aspects of surgery.