First ACS MHSSP Medical Director Completes Successful Term of Service

Margaret “Peggy” Knudson, MD, FACS, the first Medical Director of the Military Health System Strategic Partnership ACS, has completed a successful 8-year term of service. This partnership—launched in December 2014—has facilitated collaboration and the exchange of information between the College and the Military Health Systems (MHS).

Dr. Knudson was appointed to this position in 2015. Some highlights from Dr. Knudson’s inaugural directorship at the helm of the MHS Strategic Partnership (MHSSP) include:

Developing standards for military-civilian partnerships: The Blue Book: Military-Civilian Partnerships for Trauma Training, Sustainment, and Readiness provides invaluable information for developing and sustaining military-civilian partnerships (MCPs), and site selection, required institutional commitment, MCP administration, and criteria to evaluate MCP performance.
Envisioning and creating the Military Clinical Readiness Curriculum: The mCurriculum is designed to prepare both general and trauma surgeons to perform life and limb-saving surgical care in austere deployed environments.
Reinvigorating the Excelsior Surgical Society: The society was infused with new vitality in 2015, and now has nearly 500 Active, Affiliate, Honorary, and Distinguished members. The 9th Symposium of the Excelsior Surgical Society will be held at the 2023 Clinical Congress in Boston.

Photo taken during an advocacy meeting in Washington, DC, to help ensure that the Mission Zero Act would be passed and (eventually) funded. (from left) Thomas Scalea MD, FACS; Captain Eric Elster, MD, FACS; M. Margaret Knudson, MD, FACS; Congressman Michael Burgess; Colonel Todd Rasmussen, MD, FACS; and Patrick Bailey MD, FACS, Medical Director of Advocacy.

Dr. Knudson is passing the Medical Director reins to Colonel (Retired) US Army Brian Eastridge, MD, FACS. Dr. Knudson will be recognized at the ESS Symposium and is giving the Excelsior Surgical Society/Edward D. Churchill Lecture, “Service, Synergy and Surgical Mythology,” at Clinical Congress 2023.

When asked what stands out the most during her time as MHSSP Medical Director, Dr. Knudson said: “… when Dr. Rich talked to me about the original ESS meeting in Rome and told me how military surgeons coming home from Vietnam and Korea were considered ‘second class surgeons’ and were not welcomed into professional surgical societies. I was shocked to learn this because I see all of you as being ‘super-surgeons’ able to save lives despite adverse situations. Creation of the new Excelsior Surgical Society, which ensures the respect truly owed to all who have ever served, is most assuredly the most impactful long-term endeavor of the Military Health System Strategic Partnership.”