Callie Thompson, MD, assistant professor of Surgery, has been named director of the Vanderbilt Burn Center, one of the largest burn centers in the United States.
Thompson joined the surgical faculty in the Division of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care in 2016, and she’s been an integral member of the Burn Center team, including serving as the interim director since early 2018.
“We are so pleased that Dr. Thompson agreed to take on the leadership of the Burn Center in a permanent role,” said Seth Karp, MD, H. William Scott Jr. Professor and chair of the Section of Surgical Sciences.
”She is a nationally known burn surgeon and has done a wonderful job as interim director in building the group and gaining consensus and teamwork. She has a remarkable vision for making the center one of the finest in the world, and we look forward to supporting her efforts.”
Thompson received her undergraduate degree from the University of Washington in Seattle and her medical degree from Meharry Medical College in Nashville. She completed an internship and residency at the University of Washington in Seattle. She also completed a two-year research fellowship at Harborview Medical Center, and a fellowship in Trauma/Burn/Critical Care at the University of Washington/Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Thompson’s clinical interests include care of the traumatically injured patient and emergency general surgery. She is board certified in general surgery and in surgical critical care by the American Board of Surgery. Thompson is a member of the American Burn Association, the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the American College of Surgeons and the Association of Women Surgeons.
Her research focus is on inflammation and the host’s response to trauma and burn injury, genetic variations and their associations with outcomes after traumatic injury including hypertrophic scarring, and patient-reported outcomes after burn injury.
Her research has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Burns, Critical Care Medicine and the Journal of Burn Care and Research.
“I have been a proud member of the Vanderbilt burn team for the past three years, and I am honored to have been chosen for this important role,” said Thompson. “I look forward to continuing to grow our burn center through collaboration and outreach both within the institution and throughout our region.”
Vanderbilt’s Burn Center facility is a 25-bed burn unit that serves as a regional referral center for both adult and pediatric patients with more than 600 admissions a year and 3,000 outpatient visits annually. Patient care is provided through a multidisciplinary, team approach.
In addition, the Vanderbilt Burn Center serves as a resource center for both referring facilities and the community, providing outreach programs, continuing education, and ongoing research in burn injury and treatment.
