Professor
Brigham Family Endowed Professor in Trauma and Acute Care Surgery
Director, Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery

Areas of Interest
trauma, surgical critical care, acute care surgery, pre-hospital emergency care

Biography

Dr. Kerby was named director of the Division of Trauma & Acute Care Surgery in November 2014. A native of Missouri, Dr. Kerby received both his undergraduate degree and medical degree from the University of Missouri at Kansas City in 1989. He completed his surgical residency in general surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1999, along with a postdoctoral research fellowship in 1996, earning a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics from UAB in 1997. Following residency, Dr. Kerby served in the United States Air Force as an active duty surgeon until 2003, deploying as a combat trauma surgeon in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2002. Dr. Kerby returned to UAB in 2003. Since his return, he has served as a clinically active acute care surgeon and was the chief of general surgery at the Birmingham VA Medical Center from 2009 through 2014. An active researcher, Dr. Kerby served as the principal investigator for the Alabama Resuscitation Center of the Resuscitation Outcomes Center network, an NIH-funded multicenter trials network focused on outcomes of hospital clinical trials in trauma and cardiac arrest from 2005 through 2015.

Dr. Kerby has established military-civilian partnerships between UAB and the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army, developing trauma-training programs for Air Force Pararescue personnel and Army 18 Deltas. In addition, the Division of Acute Care Surgery hosts three teams of Air Force Special Operations Surgeons on a permanent basis through a training affiliation agreement with Air Force Special Operations Command. Dr. Kerby serves on the Editorial Board of Shock and The American Journal of Surgery.

Dr. Kerby’s clinical interests include trauma, critical care, and emergency general surgery. His research interests are focused on interventional trials in the pre-hospital emergency care setting. A current focus of his research interests is the effect of blood storage age on outcomes in trauma patients.  His collaborative group has published extensively in this area and has investigated potential mechanisms of the blood storage lesion through NIH-funded research. A major area of emphasis currently is on clinical trial development to evaluate the effect of blood storage age on clinical outcomes in trauma patients requiring large blood volume replacement. In addition, his group has a robust trauma outcomes effort through the UAB Center for Injury Sciences (CIS) and participates as an active investigative site in the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN).

In 2022, Dr. Kerby became Chair of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma.

Selected Publications

MacMillan-Crow LA, Crow JP, Kerby JD, Beckman JS, Thompson JA: Nitration and Inactivation of Manganese Superoxide Dismutase in Chronic Rejection of Human Renal Allografts. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93: 11853-11858, 1996.

Kerby JD, Rue LW, Blair H, Hudson S, Sellers MT, Diethelm AG: Operative Treatment of Tertiary Hyperparathyroidism: A Single Center Experience. Annals of Surgery 227(6): 878-886, 1998.
Davis MR, Ortegon DP, Kerby JD, Ignarro LJ, Kashyap VS: Endothelial Dysfunction Following Arterial Thrombosis is Ameliorated by L-Arginine Coupled Thrombolysis. Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology 14(2):233-239, 2003.

Melton SM, Kerby JD, McGiffin D, McGwin G, Smith JK, Oser RF, Cross JM, Windham ST, Moran SG, Hsia J, Rue LW Evolution of the Use of Thoracic CT Scan in the Diagnosis of Blunt Aortic Injury: A Single Center Experience Journal of Trauma 56(2):243-50, 2004.

Fitzpatrick CM, Biggs KL, Atkins BZ, Quance-Fitch FJ, Dixon PS, Savage SA, Jenkins DH, Kerby JD Prolonged Low Volume Resuscitation with HBOC-201 in a Large Animal Survival Model of Controlled Hemorrhage Journal of Trauma 59(2):273-81, 2005.

Kerby JD, Sainz JG, Zhang F, Hutchings A, Sprague S, Farrokhi F, Son M Resuscitation from hemorrhagic shock with HBOC-201 in the setting of traumatic brain injury Shock 27(6):652-656, 2007.

Snyder CW, Weinberg JA, McGwin G Jr, Melton SM, George RL, Reiff DA, Cross JM, Hubbard-Brown J, Rue LW III, Kerby JD The Relationship of Blood Product Ratio to Mortality: Survival Benefit or Survival Bias? Journal of Trauma 66:358-64, 2009.

Vandromme MJ, Griffin R, Weinberg JA, Rue LW III, Kerby JD Lactate is a Better Predictor Than Systolic Blood Pressure for Determining Blood Requirement and Mortality: Could Prehospital Measures Improve Trauma Triage? J Am Coll Surg 210(5):861-867, 2010.

Minei JP, Schmicker RH, Kerby JD, Stiell IG, Schreiber MA, Bulger E, Tisherman S, Hoyt DB, Nichol G and the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium Investigators. Severe Traumatic Injury: Regional Variation in Incidence and Outcome. Ann Surg 252(1):149-157, 2010.

Bulger, EM, May S, Brasel KJ, Schreiber M, Kerby JD, Tisherman SA, Newgard C, Slutsky A, Coimbra R, Emerson S, Minei JP, Bardarson B, Kudenchuk P, Baker A, Christenson J, Idris A, Davis D, Fabian TC, Aufderheide TP, Callaway C, Williams C, Banek J, Vaillancourt C, van Heest R, Sopko G, Hata JS, Hoyt DB; ROC Investigators Out-of-Hospital Hypertonic Resuscitation Following Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: A Randomized Controlled Trial JAMA 304(13):1455-64, 2010.

Bulger EM, May S, Kerby JD, Emerson S, Stiell IG, Schreiber MA, Brasel KJ, Tisherman SA, Coimbra R, Rizoli S, Minei JP, Hata JS, Sopko G, Evans DC, Hoyt DB Out of Hospital Hypertonic Resuscitation After Traumatic Hypovolemic Shock: A Randomized, Placebo Controlled Trial Annals of Surgery 253(3):431-441, 2011.

Vandromme MJ, Melton SM, Griffin R, McGwin G, Weinberg JA, Minor M, Rue LW III, Kerby JD Intubation Patterns and Outcomes in Patients with Computed Tomography-Verified Traumatic Brain Injury Journal of Trauma 71(6):1615-1619, 2011.

Kerby JD, Griffin RL, Maclennan P, Rue LW 3rd Stress-Induced Hyperglycemia, Not Diabetic Hyperglycemia, Is Associated with Higher Mortality in Trauma Ann Surg. 256(3):446-452, 2012.

Bosarge P, Kerby JD Stress-Induced Hyperglycemia: Is It Harmful Following Trauma? Advances in Surgery 47:287 – 295, 2013.

Holcomb JB, Tilley BC, Baraniuk S, Fox EE, Wade CE, Podbielski JM, del Junco DJ, Brasel KJ, Bulger EM, Callcut RA, Cohen MJ, Cotton BA, Fabian TC, Inaba K, Kerby JD, Muskat P, O’Keeffe T, Rizoli S, Robinson BR, Scalea TM, Schreiber MA, Stein DM, Weinberg JA, Callum JL, Hess JR, Matijevic N, Miller CN, Pittet JF, Hoyt DB, Pearson GD, Leroux B, van Belle G and the PROPPR Study Group JAMA 313(5):471-482, 2015.

Guyette FX, Meier EN, Newgard CD, McKnight B, Daya M, Bulger EM, Powell JL, Brasel KJ, Kerby JD, Egan D, Sise M, Coimbra R, Fabian T, Hoyt DB and the ROC Investigators A Comparison of Prehospital Lactate and Systolic Blood Pressure for Predicting the Need for Resuscitative Care in Trauma Transported by Ground J Trauma Acute Care Surg 78(3):600-606, 2015

Schreiber MA, Meier EN, Tisherman SA, Kerby JD, Newgard CD, Brasel K, Egan D, Witham W, Williams C, Daya M, Beeson J, McCully BH, Wheeler S, Kannas D, May S, McKnight B, Hoyt DB and the ROC Investigators A Controlled Resuscitation Strategy is Feasible and Safe in Hypotensive Trauma Patients: Results of a Prospective Randomized Pilot Trial J Trauma Acute Care Surg 78(4):687-697, 2015.

Bosarge PL, Shoultz TH, Griffin RL, Kerby JD Stress-Induced Hyperglycemia is Associated with Higher Mortality in Severe Traumatic Brain Injury J Trauma Acute Care Surg 79(2):289-294, 2015.

Nichol G, Leroux B, Wang H, Callaway CW, Sopko G, Weisfeldt M, Stiell I, Morrison LJ, Aufderheide TP, Cheskes S, Christenson J, Kudenchuk P, Vaillancourt C, Rea TD, Idris AH, Colella R, Isaacs M, Straight R, Stephens S, Richardson J, Condle J, Schmicker RH, Egan D, May S, Ornato JP and the ROC Investigators Trial of Continuous or Interrupted Chest Compressions during CPR N Engl J Med 373(23):2203-14, 2015.

Education

Medical School
University of Missouri at Kansas City

Residency
University of Alabama at Birmingham
General Surgery

Fellowship
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Research

Contact

Campus Address
BDB 618

Phone
Patient Appointments and Questions: 205-975-7521
Academic Office: 205-975-3030

Email
jkerby@uabmc.edu