New Trauma Surgeon Appointment Continues Expansion of UA Department of Surgery Trauma Program
September 30, 2009
Bellal Joseph, MD, has been appointed assistant professor of surgery in the Department of Surgery at the University of Arizona in the Section of Trauma, Critical Care and Emergency Surgery. Dr. Joseph joins a growing trauma program that has added six new trauma surgeons in the last two years at University Medical Center.
“We are happy to welcome Dr. Joseph to The University of Arizona and UMC,” said Peter Rhee, MD, MPH, UA professor of surgery and UMC Trauma Center medical director. “His significant contribution helps to grow the trauma program and the department and to expand critical emergency services at UMC to Southern Arizona.”
Dr. Joseph is a graduate of the Saba School of Medicine in the Netherlands-Antilles. He completed his residency training at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and a trauma critical care fellowship at the University of Maryland’s renowned R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center.
His clinical and research interests are emergency general surgery, penetrating trauma, international trauma, quality and process improvement, and long-term clinical and functional outcomes after trauma, including how tight blood sugar control in trauma patients improves perioperative outcomes.
A member of the American College of Surgeons and the Society for Critical Care Medicine, Dr. Joseph has published several peer-reviewed publications. He was awarded the Andrew S. Rowan Surgical Intern of the Year, Henry Ford Hospital; the Wayne State University School of Medicine Chapter of the Good Humanism Honor Society; and the Henry Ford Hospital Resident Surgical Research Award 2008.
"Dr. Joseph is a great addition to our trauma team and plays a key role in advancing the Department of Surgery and improving emergency surgery and trauma care to citizens of Southern Arizona," said Rainer Gruessner, MD, professor and chairman of the UA Department of Surgery.
Southern Arizona’s only Level 1 Trauma Center, UMC has one of the most highly rated trauma programs in the nation in several key outcomes, including the best patient survival rates, the lowest costs, and shortest hospital stay. Trauma affects everyone in Tucson and Southern Arizona.