United States military medical personnel are a daily presence at Vanderbilt University Medical Center as they receive skills training and work alongside their civilian counterparts through initiatives such as Strategic Medical Asset Readiness Training (SMART), Army Military-Civilian Trauma Team Training (AMCT3), and as part of educational outreach at Fort Campbell and Blanchfield Army Community Hospital (BACH) in Kentucky.
These military-civilian partnerships extend to the end of their military careers and beyond as individuals transitioning out of military service come to the Medical Center to shadow employees through the Department of Defense SkillBridge/Career Skills Program (CSP) .
In 2018, orthopaedic trauma surgeon and U.S. Army colonel Daniel Stinner, MD, PhD, an associate professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, became the first dual-appointment faculty member, spending four days a week in clinical duties at VUMC and one day at BACH. Lucas Groves, MD, assistant professor of Clinical Ophthalmology, and Maggie Gallagher, MD, assistant professor of Clinical Pediatric Surgery, also serve as dual-appointment faculty. Gallagher serves as BACH’s chief of General Surgery.
The dual appointment allows Stinner to care for a greater volume of higher acuity patients. During his time at VUMC, he’s been deployed twice — to Afghanistan in 2019 and to Iraq in 2021.
“There’s a huge benefit in being exposed to high acuity trauma — both the blunt and penetrating injuries that we see at Vanderbilt that get you extremely comfortable with dealing with severe injuries on a daily basis,” Stinner said. “Then when you have to deal with similar injuries in a more austere, resource-limited environment, you’re very comfortable managing them, as well as knowing what is expected for the downstream surgeon and what they will be doing, so you can optimize their care.”
Stinner has experienced another benefit as he works closely with VUMC’s Trauma Education and Outreach team, particularly as they teach Advanced Trauma Life Support courses at Fort Campbell.
“I’ve gotten to be very facile with doing things that are outside the normal orthopaedic surgeon’s skill set, such as doing FAST exams (image-guided assessments to quickly pinpoint internal trauma),” Stinner said. “On my surgical team during deployment, when we received a patient, I was the one doing the FAST exam while the general surgeon began the patient assessment and prepared for any lifesaving interventions.”
Josh Smith, DO, assistant professor of Clinical Surgery in the Division of Acute Care Surgery, is a major in the U.S. Army, selected for promotion to lieutenant colonel in May 2025. Smith completed a fellowship in surgical critical care and acute care surgery at VUMC, then joined the AMCT3 program at the Medical Center.
During his time at VUMC, he has been deployed once to the Horn of Africa as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, where the high volume of trauma cases he covers at VUMC influenced the job he was able to do as a trauma surgeon overseas.
“My surgical team during deployment was a 10-man team — that was it,” he said. “Being here led to me never being uncomfortable, no matter what happened. If I didn’t have as much experience, I’m sure it would have been more frightening. Every single trauma patient I take care of here is applicable to what I do in the Army.”
And he enjoys teaching trainees at the Medical Center how to make do with less and come up with solutions during challenging situations.
“I do a lot of things differently when I’m deployed because I don’t have a lot of the fancy stuff,” he said. “Like, I know how to make my own wound vacs for open abdomens. I enjoy teaching the trainees old tips and tricks so they can be prepared for anything.”
