Dr. Jon D. Simmons is a professor within the Department of Surgery. He has served as the trauma medical director and chief of the Division of Trauma & Acute Care Surgery at USA Health University Hospital – the region’s only level 1 trauma center - since 2017.
Dr. Simmons previously served as the program director for the General Surgery Residency from 2012-2018. He currently serves as the Councilor for Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society at the University of South Alabama since 2016. Dr. Simmons completed his general surgery residency at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 2009. During residency, he garnered many awards, including Teacher of the Year, Arnold P. Gold Humanism Award, and Resident of the Year, which was chosen from over 500 residents. Following residency, Dr. Simmons completed a Multidisciplinary Critical Care Fellowship at Johns Hopkins where he was also named Teacher of the Year.
Since his arrival at the University of South Alabama in 2011, Dr. Simmons has impacted the Department of Surgery in many ways. Under his leadership, the General Surgery Residency has thrived. For these efforts, he was named Faculty Teacher of the Year in 2012 and awarded the Scarlet Sash Award seven consecutive years for outstanding mentorship to the medical students.
Dr. Simmons has also excelled as a scientist. He has collaborated with Mark Gillespie, chair of Pharmacology, and others from the Center for Lung Biology to create a strong multi-disciplinary team to conduct translational research in critically injured patients. Dr. Simmons has funding from several external sources, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), American Heart Association, American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST), and the American College of Surgeons. He was also awarded the 2014-2019 Clowes Memorial Research Career Development Award.
His current research interests include blood banking practices, massive transfusions, transfusion-related ARDS, hemorrhagic shock, platelet failure, mitochondrial DNA damage and repair, and the inflammatory nature of cell-free mitochondrial DNA.
Dr. Simmons has taken multiple trips to Africa over the past ten years to provide surgical care to rural regions that have no access to a surgeon. Since his arrival to the University of South Alabama, he has been instrumental in establishing a yearly trip for surgical residents and medical students to Rwanda in association with the Christian Medical Ministry for South Alabama.
Honors
External Research Funding
Selected Publications
“The symposium is such a great way to develop relationships with everyone who treats trauma patients in our region, which ultimately improves survival and outcomes."
“The addition of these four ORs and hybrid OR suite will dramatically expand our ability to perform the most complex tertiary surgical procedures while also caring for our trauma patients.”
Voting for this year’s awards starts Wednesday, May 3, at VoteNappies.com and runs through May 28.
About 165 people attended this year’s symposium from various states. Attendees included nurses, emergency medical service providers, advanced practice practitioners, physicians, students and community leaders.
Jon Simmons, M.D., associate professor of surgery and pharmacology at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, was one of five faculty members recently awarded the 2019 USA College of Medicine Faculty Intramural Grants Research Award.
Jon Simmons, M.D., associate professor of surgery and pharmacology at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine recently graduated from the Harvard Medical School Surgical Leadership Program.
Working with local police and legislators, USA College of Medicine Trauma Surgeon Dr. Jon Simmons and his team were able to push for a new law enacted in September that requires all hospitals in Alabama to report gunshot wounds to law enforcement.
USA Health University Hospital again welcomed teenagers from the local community to participate in Project Inspire, a mentorship program designed to build relationships and encourage young people in the Mobile community.
The study, led by USA Health University Hospital’s Trauma Medical Director Jon D. Simmons M.D., suggests that new manufacturing and quality control processes are needed to eliminate previously unrecognized cellular contamination present in stored plasma products.
