Thomas F. Higgins MD

Dr. Thomas Higgins 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. His medical degree was completed at Brown University School of Medicine. His orthopedic training was at Yale University, with a post-graduate fellowship in orthopedic trauma at the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. He has been on the faculty at the University of Utah since 2000.

Dr. Higgins’ clinical expertise is in the treatment of complex intra-articular injuries, pelvic and acetabular trauma, and musculoskeletal care in the setting of polytrauma. His elective practice focuses on deformity correction, malunions, and nonunions.

The author of over eighty peer-reviewed publications and multiple book chapters, Dr. Higgins's main area of research interest clinically has been plateau fractures. He has been the primary investigator or co-investigator on four OTA grants, two AO grants, and an OREF grant. His most recent research has focused on the genetics of trauma, the use of opiate analgesics in the trauma setting, and the role of inflammatory mediators in the formation of post-traumatic osteoarthritis. He was recently awarded a $2.5 million dollar DOD grant for a prospective randomized clinical trial on the role of NSAIDs in fracture healing.

In the educational sphere, Dr. Higgins is recognized nationally for his research and presentations of tibial plateau fractures. He has been active with orthopedic education with AO North America, chairing three courses, and teaching at over thirty. Previously a member of the OTA Education Committee, he has also chaired multiple resident courses for the OTA. He has received the annual teaching award three times at the University of Utah.

He has previously served on the Orthopaedic Trauma Association Board of Directors and currently serves as OTA Secretary on the BOD. Dr. Higgins was the OTA Annual Program Chair in 2013 and 2014. In 2009, Dr. Higgins served as the OTA/AAOS Landstuhl Visiting Scholar and has been visiting professor at multiple universities. In 2015 he and his family spent four months serving at Kijabe Hospital in Kenya, and he served as a visiting surgeon with Health Volunteers Overseas at the Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital in Thimphu, Bhutan for the month of January 2020. He maintains an interest in continuing to serve in global medicine. When he is not working, he enjoys skiing, biking, and traveling with his wife and kids.