The University of Nevada School of Medicine announces that John J. Fildes, M.D., FACS, has been named permanent chair of the Department of Surgery.
A leader in the field of trauma surgery, Fildes has been with the department for 20 years and has served as vice chair for the last 14 years. He also serves as chief of the Division of Acute Care Surgery.

Upon accepting the new position, Fildes said his long-term plan is to complete a community needs assessment for surgery to identify and fill the gaps that currently exist in Southern Nevada.

"I want to create new training programs and surgical product lines that bring these services to Southern Nevada, so that this city of two million is on par with other cities of similar population," he said.

Fildes established the first American Association for the Surgery of Trauma approved fellowship in Acute Care Surgery in the nation at the School of Medicine's Las Vegas campus back in 2008 and continues to function as its program director. He is also the medical director and chair of the Department of Trauma and Burns at University Medical Center, where he also served as vice chief of staff for 1,200 physicians.

Fildes has been practicing in Las Vegas since 1996 and has received the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce's Achievement Award (1998), was named as Nevada's Distinguished Physician (2006), received a certificate of appreciation from the White House Medical Unit (1998) and was named a University of Nevada, Reno Foundation Professor (2012).

Fildes has been a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons since 1990 where he has made significant contributions to the creation of the National Trauma Data Bank® and the Trauma Quality Improvement Project®. He was appointed National Chair of the ACS Committee on Trauma (2006-2010) and was promoted to Medical Director of Trauma Programs in the Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care at the ACS (2010-2014).

A member of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) since 1994, he served as Chair of its Injury Assessment and Outcome Committee (2004-2006) and as the Chair of the Acute Care Surgery Committee (2010-2013) where he made significant contributions to the growth and development of Acute Care Surgery training programs.

Fildes has collaborated with the United States Air Force for more than a decade and has embedded active duty residents into general surgery and emergency medicine residencies at the School of Medicine. He collaborated and led the efforts to establish the STARS-P (Sustainment of Trauma and Resuscitation Skills - Program) and more recently the SMART program (Sustained Medical and Readiness Training) to sustain and improve the readiness of attending surgeons for battle field medicine.