For Thomas Beaver, M.D., M.P.H., his service didn’t end when he hung up his Army uniform.
After beginning his career by serving patients, Beaver served his country and then went back to his roots in academic medicine. As the Grant and Shirle Herron Chair, professor and chief of the division of cardiovascular surgery at the University of Florida College of Medicine, he has served the UF community as a cardiovascular surgeon for over 25 years and as a member of the UF Health Aortic Disease Center.
Boots on the ground
Shortly after earning his medical degree in 1990, Beaver enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps, where one of his assignments was to support Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii, a place he would travel to every couple of years and spend two weeks on duty. Two years after completing his general surgery residency training at the University of Colorado in 1996, he completed his cardiac surgery fellowship training at UF and began his first faculty position at the University of South Florida before returning to UF in 2000. More than two decades later, he has continued to advance cardiac surgical care, education and research at UF.
In 2004, while on faculty at UF, he served as “boots on the ground” in Tikrit, Iraq and Asadabad, Afghanistan, as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“I felt an obligation during this time to help serve with my fellow physicians and nurses,” he said. “I had an incredibly supportive workplace environment here at UF where my partners were able to take care of my patients while I was gone.”
Beaver was part of a “Forward Surgical Team”, a mobile medical unit that provides emergency surgery, which was attached to a combat support hospital where the team would perform surgery and dispatch soldiers back through the echelons of care — the progression of medical treatment in the military that is organized into tiers based on severity and capabilities. His Forward Surgical Team was later transferred to Afghanistan.
“I have a lot of respect for the line officers and traditional service members in the Medical Corps,” he said. “It is inspiring the amount of people who sign up — good people all trying to do the right thing.”
Still serving
Upon retiring from the military as a lieutenant colonel in 2006, Beaver returned full time to his second station — serving civilians by capitalizing not only on his expertise and skill in surgery, but also on his mentorship abilities. As a mentor, his mission is to educate the next generation of surgeons.
In his medical career, Beaver is guided by the structure and organizational skills he learned in the military. Admiring the standardized training available in the military, he advocates for more simulation-based training in the medical field, putting faculty in the roles they would find themselves operating in during emergency situations.
“I’ve always admired the military for making sure that everybody, no matter their assigned role, has been trained at the same level,” he said.
Upon entering Beaver’s office, one is greeted with small trinkets and baubles along his windowsill and bookshelf — mementos from patients he has dedicated his expertise to saving. Serving his patients and having an impact on their lives continues to be his priority, even after the surgery ends.
“Service is really about giving back, trying to make the community better and doing your best to lead by example,” he said. “It’s important to work on one’s self personally, but also as a system — trying to figure out how we can take care of our patients better while making it safer for those who come next. We have an outstanding team here at UF that is all focused on that one mission.”