Dr. Andrew Dennis is Associate Professor of Surgery and Chairman of the Division of Emergency Services and Pre-Hospital Traumatology at the Cook County Trauma Burn Unit in Chicago Il.  Dr. Dennis is both an author and surgical scientist with numerous peer reviewed publications.  He serves as the Chairman of Surgery at Midwestern University College of Osteopathic Medicine and core surgical faculty at Rush Medical College.

Dr. Dennis’s areas of research vary widely and have ranged from pre-hospital trauma, electronic control devices (TASERS), kinematics of injury, hemorrhage control and abdominal wall reconstruction.  He is the inventor of the Trans-Abdominal Wall Traction (TAWT) method and device which is used worldwide and has served as a paradigm shift in the evolution of closing the uncloseable abdomen.

Dr. Dennis has served in leadership positions in both academic trauma surgery and in law enforcement organizations in including the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST) and the International Association of Chiefs of Police.  He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American College of Osteopathic Surgeons and a member of The Western Trauma Association and the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

Setting him apart from most surgeons, Dr. Dennis has deep seeded roots in public safety serving as a veteran paramedic and police officer in cities such as Newark NJ, Philadelphia Pa and Kansas City MO.  He currently serves the Illinois State Police as the Chief of the Medical Bureau and Statewide the EMS system Medical Director.   He also serves as a Trauma Medical Director for the Chicago Fire Department.  In addition to his medical research and law enforcement careers, Dr. Dennis joined the ranks of Hollywood as a featured character in the National Geographic series “Chicago Trauma” and the CNN docuseries “Chicagoland”.  Since those television shows aired, he was recruited by Dick Wolf productions and NBC to serve as the Executive Medical Advisor & Associate Producer for the prime-time NBC “Chicago One” series that includes “Chicago Med”, “Chicago Fire”, and “Chicago PD”.  He also frequently consults as a medical advisor for Fox’s “Empire “and “Force”.

Dr. Dennis did his undergraduate education at Clark University in Worcester MA, followed by graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania.  He completed medical school at Kansas City University College of Osteopathic Medicine.  His internship was at Health Midwest Hospitals in Kansas City and his residency in General Surgery was at Midwestern University.  Dr. Dennis completed his fellowships in Trauma Surgery, Critical Care and Burn Surgery at the Cook County Hospital. Dr Dennis is originally from the “Jersey Shore” and currently lives in Chicago with his wife Melissa, an OB/GYN and two children Minnie and Ethan.