Michael A. Vella, M.D., M.B.A.

I am an Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgery, Division of Acute Care Surgery and Trauma. I currently serve as the Trauma Medical Director at the Kessler Trauma Center.

I grew up in Central Pennsylvania and graduated from Juniata College in Huntingdon, PA where I ran cross-country and track and field. My interest in trauma care blossomed from my working as an emergency medical technician in my hometown during college and then from my experience as a medical student at University of Pennsylvania’s busy level one trauma center. I completed a seven-year general surgery residency at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, which included two years working on a variety of research projects and helping to oversee the Nashville Veterans Affairs Medical Center wound care clinic. During that time, I also obtained my MBA from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt. I finished my training with a two year trauma/surgical critical care fellowship back at the University of Pennsylvania.

My areas of interest/expertise include:

• Management of a spectrum of traumatic injuries
• Emergency general surgery
• Surgical critical care
• Resuscitation of the critically ill and injured
• Trauma team education and simulation
• Trauma performance improvement
• The use of whole blood and resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA)

I am particularly interested in the use of trauma video review (the video-recording of trauma resuscitations) for use in trauma team simulation, education, research, and performance improvement.

I am board certified in general surgery and surgical critical care and am a member of the American College of Surgeons, the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma, and the Society of Critical Care Medicine.