UAB’s Trauma Medical Director, Associate Professor Daniel B. Cox, M.D., was recently selected for promotion to full Colonel in the United States Air Force.
Cox was one of just 15 Medical Corps Officers that were promoted out of the 118 eligible for promotion. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 2017 and has served in the Air Force since 2001.
A UAB School of Medicine alum, Cox completed both his general surgery residency and surgical critical care fellowship at UAB and came back as a faculty member in 2018 after completing his active duty service.
Cox, now in the Air Force Reserves, has completed several military deployments, gaining more experience and leadership responsibility each time. He has been deployed to Germany, Africa, and Cuba, and most notably served as trauma czar, chief of surgery, and surgical services flight commander at Craig Joint Theater Hospital in Bagram, Afghanistan. He has been awarded the Air Force Meritorious Service Medal three times, among other honors.
“The military causalities and the civilian patients he’s taken care of have greatly benefitted from his experiences.” - Professor John. B. Holcomb, M.D. FACS
Cox has a distinguished history as a leader and consultant in en route critical care, a core pillar of the Air Force’s responsibilities.
Until 2018, Cox served as the Medical Director of En Route Care for the Office of the Command Surgeon for Air Mobility Command. Currently he serves as the Individual Mobilization Augmentee to the current Medical Director.
In these roles, Cox is responsible for supporting worldwide en route medical care activities, ensuring that Aeromedical Evacuation crews and Critical Care Air Transport Teams are trained, equipped, and postured for response around the world. He also develops clinical protocols and provides policy guidance for the Air Force En Route Care system.
In 2016, Cox was charged with helping to develop new ground surgical teams for damage control resuscitation and surgery in austere environments. He helped create and execute the training as well as developing new surgical equipment packages for these teams. These teams are now deploying globally, providing a foundational building block of Air Force surgery capability.
Cox was also instrumental in advancing the capability of Critical Care Air Transport Teams (CCATT) to care for unstable, acutely injured patients. CCAT teams are responsible for transporting severely injured patients from around the world. They provide ICU-level care in the back of military aircraft, performing interventions to stabilize and resuscitate patients as they move from injury on the battlefield through forward deployed hospitals all the way back to hospitals in the United States.
Cox is also considered a subject matter expert on military-civilian partnerships. He’s lived both sides of the experience: he was an active duty surgeon while embedded as an assistant professor of surgery at University of Cincinnati Medical Center and now works on the civilian side supporting embedded personnel here at UAB, like the Special Operations Surgical Teams. He’s in daily contact with and gives lectures on trauma management to deployed teams across the globe.
UAB, home to Alabama’s only ACS-verified Level 1 Trauma Center, is a hub for embedded military personnel to maintain their clinical expertise. Cox explains that now, especially with combat in Afghanistan and Iraq over, personnel need the hands-on experience to keep their medical skills sharp. UAB’s trauma center, which saw over 6,500 trauma evaluations last year from across the state and even neighboring states, is the perfect place for that experience. Working at UAB, with its high volume of severely injured patients, also helps Cox translate best practices from a civilian hospital to the military field.
“Being involved in this level of trauma and ICU care helps us take what we do here at UAB at a very high volume trauma center and use those lessons learned to help make sure the field is prepared and informed.”
Cox hopes this promotion will allow him to further support and advance military medicine. He calls the promotion a big honor and a big responsibility.
“I’ve been very fortunate through my Air Force career to have incredible mentors and servant leaders that I’ve had the opportunity to work for,” Cox said. “It’s an honor to be entrusted with their confidence to serve at the next level.”
Cox is one of many veterans within the division. Jeffrey D. Kerby, M.D., Ph.D., FACS, division director and the Brigham Family Endowed Professor in Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, is a former Air Force officer. He says Cox has accomplished much to improve the care of those injured in combat over his many years of military service.
“Promotion to Colonel is a well-deserved and significant recognition for Dr. Cox,” Kerby said. “We are honored to have someone with his leadership skillset and accomplishments leading our trauma program.”
Professor John B. Holcomb, M.D., FACS, who had a 23 year career in the Army and fought in the Battle of Mogadishu, considers himself a friend and mentor to Cox. He says it’s to the credit of Kerby and UAB as an institution to bring Cox back to Birmingham and have someone of his caliber at UAB.
“Leadership isn’t constrained to one sphere and his leadership ability has been honed in the Air Force and civilian world,” Holcomb said. “The military causalities and the civilian patients he’s taken care of have greatly benefitted from his experiences.”