Capt. Travis M. Polk, MD, FACS

Dr. Travis Polk has served as the Director of the US Department of Defense (DoD) Combat Casualty Care Research Program since July 2020. In this role, Dr. Polk is responsible for the strategic planning and management of the DoD science and technology investment that supports the development of knowledge and material solutions for combat-related trauma on the current and future battlefield.

In this role, he exercises primary planning, programming, budgeting, and execution of the integrated Combat Casualty Care research portfolio for the Defense Health Program and US Army (approximately $150 million annually), including programs in Neurotrauma, Prolonged Care, Severe Burns, En Route Care, Battlefield Resuscitation of Combat Casualties, Radiation Medical Countermeasures, Directed Energy, and Autonomous Care and Evacuation. Additionally, the program funds DoD's Linking Investigations in Trauma and Emergency Services clinical trauma research network, the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, and efforts to study casualty care in the current Ukraine conflict.

Dr. Polk received his Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Norwich University in 1997 and his Doctor of Medicine from the Uniformed Services University in 2001. He completed general surgery training at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth in 2008 and a fellowship in traumatology, surgical critical care, and emergency surgery at the University of Pennsylvania in 2012. Dr. Polk has extensive prior experience in military-civilian trauma partnerships and surgical simulation and has deployed several times both aboard ship and in Afghanistan. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and currently serves as the Military Region Chief for the ACS Committee on Trauma.