November 10, 2004

C. William Schwab, MD, FACS, Elected President of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma

(Philadelphia) -- C. William Schwab, MD, Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Division of Trauma & Surgical Critical Care at the University of Pennsylvania Health System was elected President of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) at its 63rd Annual Meeting on October 1, 2004. He will serve as President Elect through August, 2005, at which time he will assume the full duties of the presidency.

Under Schwab's leadership, Penn has become a Level I Regional Resource Trauma Center, recently recognized as a "model program" for the nation. It includes the PENNStar Critical Care Flight Program and premier Surgical Critical Care services. His surgical practice focuses on caring for severely injured patients throughout the Delaware and Lehigh Valleys; and his expertise in the science of trauma care and trauma delivery systems has led to the co-authoring of national position papers on trauma systems for the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Highway Safety Commission. He is also the Director of the Firearm & Injury Center at Penn (FICAP), a collaboration of researchers, health care professionals, and communities addressing the magnitude and impact of firearm injury and violence.

Founded in 1938, the AAST provides leadership and fosters advances in the surgery of trauma, serving as an intellectual forum for the exchange of knowledge pertaining to research, practice and training in the surgery of trauma. The Association initiated the premiere peer reviewed journal for the field, the Journal of Trauma, in 1961. Its membership consists predominately of surgeons, physicians and scientists from diverse areas, but with a primary focus on injury. AAST, with its interdisciplinary and international membership of approximately 1,000 members, as well as honorary and corresponding members, establishes it as a global “Who’s Who” in injury care and prevention.

Dr. Schwab joins Drs. William Fitts and Carter Nance as the third Penn surgeon to serve as president of the AAST. As a former president of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST), he is the only physician to lead both organizations.

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PENN Medicine is a $2.7 billion enterprise dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and high-quality patient care. PENN Medicine consists of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System (created in 1993 as the nation’s first integrated academic health system).

Penn’s School of Medicine is ranked #3 in the nation for receipt of NIH research funds; and ranked #4 in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s most recent ranking of top research-oriented medical schools. Supporting 1,400 fulltime faculty and 700 students, the School of Medicine is recognized worldwide for its superior education and training of the next generation of physician-scientists and leaders of academic medicine.

Penn Health System is comprised of: its flagship hospital, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, consistently rated one of the nation’s “Honor Roll” hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first hospital; Presbyterian Medical Center; a faculty practice plan; a primary-care provider network; two multispecialty satellite facilities; and home health care and hospice.