JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
Add “Icon in Surgery” and an appointment as second vice president to the latest accolades and accomplishments of the illustrious military and medical career of Dr. Basil A. Pruitt Jr., a former commander and director of the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston.
Pruitt will be presented the award and appointment during the Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons in San Diego, Calif., in October. A video to commemorate Pruitt’s life and achievements will be played during the presentation.
“This award recognizes all the fine work of the physicians, scientists and nurses with whom I have collaborated at the ISR and the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio,” Pruitt said.
Pruitt’s clinical work and research has been centered on the surgical care of burn and trauma patients.
“My focus throughout the years and the focus of the men and women with whom I have worked have always been to improve the outcome of burn and trauma patients,” Pruitt said.
Pruitt, a retired Army colonel, spent 35 years as an Army trauma surgeon. Following a year in Vietnam, first as chief of professional services at the 12th Evacuation Hospital and then as chief of the trauma study section, U.S. Army Medical Research Team, Vietnam, he returned to the USAISR and commanded the Institute for 27 years (1968-1995) before he retired from military service.
After he retired, he accepted a faculty position as a clinical professor of surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. Pruitt has also fulfilled numerous visiting professorships and presented a large number of lectures throughout the world.
Het is a member of 38 professional societies and has authored or co-authored more than 470 published papers, 181 textbook chapters and 15 books and monographs. The distinguished awards that he has earned throughout his career are countless, but since 2007, he has been presented three lifetime achievement awards from the Society of University Surgeons, the American Burn Association and the Society of Critical Care Medicine.
Pruitt shows no signs of slowing down. He is working with Dr. Leopoldo “Lee” Cancio, the USAISR Burn Center acting director, to write a book on the history of the Institute and highlight the evolutionary and revolutionary advances that have occurred in the treatment of patients with thermal and mechanical injuries.
“There’s a lot that has been accomplished at the USAISR that deserves to be cited and extolled to illustrate the effectiveness of multidisciplinary research in addressing the problems of those injured in combat,” Pruitt said. “I am looking forward to documenting the benefits attributable to the program of integrated clinical and laboratory research that we developed at the USAISR.”
Data generated in studies at USAISR have expanded the understanding of the pathophysiology of injury which by clinical application has increased survival and improved outcomes of the severely wounded.
These clinical results have in turn enhanced the scholarly productivity of the investigators, dozens of whom have become directors of burn and trauma centers and units, and 17 of whom have become chairmen of departments of surgery, medicine, and pathology at medical schools in the U.S. (14) and other nations (3).
The Institute’s success has been recognized and emulated globally, as reflected by the establishment of similar biomedical research programs in the United States and other countries. Pruitt is certain that current and future studies conducted by present-day USAISR staff members and by ISR alumni will further improve care and increase the survival of combat casualties.