New chief of acute care surgery starts at UF

July 7, 2011

GAINESVILLE — Dr. Frederick A. Moore has joined the University of Florida’s College of Medicine as the department of surgery’s chief of acute care surgery.

Moore came to UF July 1 from The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, where he was head of the division of surgical critical care and acute care surgery and a professor of surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. Moore previously served as vice chairman of surgery and chief of general surgery at the University of Texas-Houston Medical School, as chief of surgical critical at Denver General Hospital and as associate professor of surgery at the University of Colorado Health Science Center.

Moore said his goals for the acute care surgery program at Shands at UF medical center include establishing a two-year acute care surgery fellowship, expanding a team of surgeons experienced in a wide variety of trauma, burn and surgical critical care, and strengthening partnerships with smaller community hospitals in the region.

Seven institutions in the U.S. currently offer training programs in acute care surgery that are approved by The American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, including a partnership program between the University of Texas Medical School at Houston and The Methodist Hospital.

Such programs include a stronger emphasis on emergency general surgery than traditional programs focused on trauma surgery. This shift in focus reflects the need for trauma surgeons to operate on and care for patients with nontraumatic conditions and those with critical illnesses, Moore said.

Caring for such patients requires knowledge of biological processes that can occur after trauma or surgery, that may impair a patient’s ability to survive and return to normal life.

Moore and his wife, Paula Jo, have two children, both of whom are in college.