Eric Elster MD

Education

University of South Florida College of Medicine, MD 1991 - 1995
University of South Florida (Honors Program), BA Interdisciplinary Studies 1987 - 1991
National Naval Medical Center, General Surgery
Internship 1995 - 1996
Resident in General Surgery 1997 - 2001
Chief Resident, General Surgery 2001 - 2002
National Institutes of Health, Organ Transplant Service
Transplant Fellow 2003 - 2005

Biography

School of Medicine Dean Dr. Eric Elster received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of South Florida in Tampa as a recipient of the U.S. Navy’s Health Professional Scholarship Program. Upon graduation, he completed a general surgery residency at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. Dr. Elster served as ship’s surgeon aboard the USS Kitty Hawk during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Upon returning from the Persian Gulf, he completed a solid organ transplantation fellowship at the National Institutes of Health; and then directed a translational research program at the Naval Medical Research Center in Silver Spring, MD, with a focus on developing improved diagnostics and therapies for serious traumatic injuries, transplantation, and advanced operative imaging.

Before his retirement from active service, Dr. Elster was last deployed as a surgeon and Director of Surgical Services at the NATO Role 3 Military Medical Unit in Kandahar, Afghanistan. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons; and a member of the Society of University Surgeons, American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the Southern Surgical Association, the Halsted Society, and the American Surgical Association. Dr. Elster has published over 150 scientific manuscripts in leading journals including JAMA, Annals of Surgery, American Journal of Transplantation, and Science Translational Medicine, and has received numerous research grants spanning all aspects of surgery.

Representative Bibliography