| R. Phillip Burns, M.D was
raised on a cattle farm in Pikeville, TN, a small town in East
Tennessee on the edge of Appalachia. A product of the public
education system in Tennessee, he is a graduate of Bledsoe County
High School where he was later named an Outstanding Alumnus in
2000. He attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and
graduated from medical school at the University of Tennessee
College of Medicine in Memphis as an Alpha Omega Alpha. He was
named an Outstanding Alumnus of the College of Medicine in 2003.
After internship and
residency training in Memphis along with two years Air Force
service, Dr. Burns was recruited to assume the position of
Chairman of Surgery in Chattanooga in 1976 at the age of 33. He is
nationally recognized in medical education for innovation and
unprecedented longevity in serving as the surgical chairman in
Chattanooga. Under his leadership, the surgery residency program
has grown from 8 to 30 plus residents in general surgery and a
critical care fellowship directed by 33 multi-specialty full time
faculty. As the recipient of numerous teaching awards during the
30 years he has served as Chairman in Chattanooga, Dr. Burns is
first of all an educator. In 2001, the University of Tennessee
College of Medicine established the R. Phillip Burns, M.D. Award
for Academic Excellence in recognition of his first 25 years of
exemplary service as Chairman of the Department of Surgery.
Dr. Burns is the past
Secretary-Director of the Southeastern Surgical Congress and past
President of the Tennessee Chapter of the American College of
Surgeons. He served two terms on the Residency Review Committee
for Surgery and was appointed by the ACGME as a special site
visitor to the surgery programs in Louisiana after the Katrina
Disaster. He holds membership in the Southern Surgical and the
American Surgical Association and is currently a Governor of the
American College of Surgeons. He is the current President of the
Southeastern Surgical Congress. He was recently appointed as the
President for the Southern Surgical Association. The Baroness
Foundation at Erlanger Medical Center recently named him as the
Outstanding Physician of the Year and will be honoring him at a
luncheon in February of 2007.
The Chattanooga Campus of
the University of Tennessee College of Medicine is located at
Erlanger Medical Center, a large regional medical center
established in 1891. As a leader on the Erlanger campus, Dr. Burns
was instrumental in the development of Erlanger as a Level l
Trauma Center and into the regional referral center. Dr. Burns’
clinical interests range from trauma care, to vascular to breast
disease and he has published and lectured widely on these
subjects. Dr. Burns recognized the value of simulated surgical
training early on and in 1981 the residents and medical students
in Chattanooga were among the first to be taught in a surgical
skills lab. Dr. Burns is nationally known for training residents
who can become academic or community surgeons.
In his spare time, Dr. Burns still has the cattle farm from his
childhood in Pikeville, TN where he and his family raise champion
Herefords. Given his propensity to leadership, he has served as
the President of the American Hereford Association, the first
physician to hold this position in the 125 year history of this
organization, and has been deeply involved in all aspects of
raising and showing prize cattle. He is married to Gayanne Shourds
Burns of Philadelphia, PA and they have three grown children, Joe
Burns, Sarah Burns Bernard, David Burns and 3 grandchildren. |
