Dr. Robert E. O'connor M.D.

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Get to know Critical Care Surgeon Dr. Robert E. O’Connor, who serves patients in Charlottesville, Virginia.

An experienced critical care surgeon, Dr. O’Connor is the Professor and Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, and Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. His areas of clinical and research interest include cardiopulmonary resuscitation, prehospital medicine, cardiovascular disease and stroke, and trauma and injury prevention.

The Department of Emergency Medicine was founded in April of 1995 and Dr. Scott Syverud was named Interim Chair. In 1996, Dr. Marcus Martin was named Professor and Chair of Emergency Medicine. From 1996 to 2000, the number of faculty increased from 11 to 16. Emergency Medicine faculty were early pioneers in the use of medical simulation for education at UVA. 

Over time, the demand for faculty, within leadership positions at UVA Health and the University, as well as an expanded number of patients, has led to more than doubling the number of faculty within the department. It currently has more than 30 full-time and part-time faculty members. The education programming has also expanded to include 36 residents across the three-year residency program. 

Academically, Dr. O’Connor holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Haverford College. He earned his medical degree from The Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1982, and completed his residency in emergency medicine at The Medical Center of Delaware in 1985. He then went on to earn his Master of Public Health degree from The Medical Center of Wisconsin in 1996.

On a professional level, Dr. O’Connor is on the Board of Directors of the American College of Emergency Physicians. In the past, he has been President of the National Association of EMS Physicians, President of Advocates for EMS, and Emergency Cardiac Care Committee Chair for the American Heart Association.

Surgical critical care is a specialty of surgery and a primary component of general surgery related to the care of patients with acute, life-threatening or potentially life-threatening surgical conditions. Critical care surgeons are experts in treating physiologic responses to tissue injury from trauma, burns, infections, acute inflammation, operation and more. They are also trained to know how such injuries interact with other diseases that a patient may have.

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