Bio
Dr. Forrester is a fellowship-trained surgeon and an assistant professor of surgery in the Stanford Medicine Division of Acute Care Surgery.
He is the associate trauma medical director for Stanford Medicine and the medical director of the Stanford Chest Wall Injury Center.
Prior to joining Stanford Medicine, Dr. Forrester was an epidemic intelligence service officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He worked in the bacterial pathogen branch in the Division of Vector-Borne Diseases of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. The CDC honored him for excellence in international, occupational, and environmental health.
He has helped advance the field of acute care surgery by participating in numerous quality improvement initiatives. He co-developed COVID-19 tracheostomy guidelines and led the team performing these procedures for Stanford Medicine. He also helped develop the best practice guidelines for surgical stabilization of rib fracture at Stanford Medicine.
Dr. Forrester has co-authored more than 120 articles and chapters published in Surgery, the Journal of Patient Safety, Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, JAMA Surgery, CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Emerging Infections, and elsewhere. Topics have included pain management after chest wall surgery, approaches to surgical stabilization of rib fractures, and health care-associated infections.
Dr. Forrester frequently presents nationally at meetings of the American College of Surgeons, AAST, Chest Wall Injury Society, Surgical Infection Society, Epidemiological Intelligence Service-CDC, and other organizations.
He is a member of the Chest Wall Injury Society, Surgical Infection Society, and Wilderness Medicine Society where he holds leadership positions. He is the moderator for the monthly Chest Wall Injury Society Case review series. Dr. Forrester is an associate member of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma.
In the field of acute care surgery, he has particular clinical interest in patients with chest wall injury and enterocutaneous and enteroatmospheric fistulae.
