Oct. 16, 2025
The Orthopaedic Trauma Association (OTA) announces the installation of its new president, Thomas F. Higgins, MD, FIOTA. Dr. Higgins has previously served OTA as a member of the OTA Board of Directors, OTA Secretary, Annual Meeting Program Chair for 2013/2014, and as a member of the Program and Education Committees.
Dr. Higgins is recognized nationally for his research and presentations of tibial plateau fractures. He was the OTA/AAOS Landstuhl Visiting Scholar in Germany in 2009, and has been a visiting professor at multiple universities. He has chaired multiple resident courses for both OTA and AO North America, and has taught at more than 40. He has received the annual resident teaching award three times at the University of Utah.
Additionally, Dr. Higgins has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed publications and multiple book chapters. His primary area of research interest has been tibial plateau fractures, and he has been primary investigator or co-investigator on four OTA grants, two AO grants, and an OREF grant. More recently, his research has focused the use of opiate analgesics in the trauma setting, and the role of inflammatory mediators in the formation of post-traumatic osteoarthritis. He currently is the Principal Investigator on a $2.5 million U.S. Department of Defense grant to conduct a prospective randomized clinical trial on the role of NSAIDs in fracture healing.
In 2015 Dr. Higgins and his family spent four months serving at Kijabe Hospital in Kenya, and he served a month as a visiting surgeon with Health Volunteers Overseas at the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital in Thimphu, Bhutan in January 2020. He has also served twice at the Haiti Adventist Hospital in Carrefour, Haiti, as well as recent service trips to Rwanda, Ukraine, and the Dominican Republic. Dr. Higgins maintains an interest in continuing to serve in global medicine.
Dr. Higgins currently holds the Richard L. Stimson Presidential Endowed Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery and is a professor and Chief of Orthopaedic Trauma Surgery at the University of Utah. He received his medical degree at Brown University School of Medicine, orthopaedic training at Yale University, and completed his post-graduate fellowship in orthopaedic trauma at the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. He has served on the faculty of the University of Utah since 2000.
When he is not working, Dr. Higgins enjoys skiing, biking, and traveling with his wife and children.
About OTA
OTA is the leading orthopaedic trauma specialty association in North America and one of the premier trauma specialty associations in the world. OTA works to promote excellence in care for injured patients, through provision of scientific forums and support of musculoskeletal research and education of orthopaedic surgeons and the public. OTA members worldwide provide leadership through education, research, and patient advocacy.
Contact
Kathleen Caswell
OTA Executive Director
(847) 698-1631
caswell@ota.org