Allan J. Hamilton, MD, FACS

Executive Director, ASTEC
Clinical Professor, Radiation Oncology
Professor, Surgery
Professor, Psychology
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Allan J. Hamilton, MD, FACS

Research Interests: 

Dr. Hamilton's research interests involve emerging technologies and methodologies that assist physicians, healthcare professionals, and healthcare delivery systems in eliminating preventable adverse medical events. His research focuses on quality assurance in human systems and performance as well as the development of informatics, artificial intelligence, “smart” artificial tissues, robotics, and “hard” versus “thick” data analysis. Dr. Hamilton is also involved in the development of new technologies to make surgery safer, innovative methods for training interprofessional healthcare teams, and new ways to create patient-specific anatomical models to provide surgeons with a better understanding of what a surgical procedure will require to produce the safest and most efficient outcomes. Dr. Hamilton's research goal is to create a healthcare system that is free of preventable errors through the use of a multi-disciplinary facility capable of simulating any healthcare environment or procedure and to ensure that the University of Arizona produces the best trained and most compassionate healthcare providers in the world.

Dr. Hamilton is currently the PI or co-PI for research funding from the NIH, the NSF, and external bio-industrial sources. These research projects include developing and evaluating the next generation of laparoscopes, looking at self-guided robotics for surgery, and designing and developing prototype “smart” artificial tissues that are capable of bleeding and responding with changes in vascular supply, volume, and color that mimic tissue changes induced by ischemia, hypoxia, and direct mechanical trauma.

Books & Chapters:

  • Hamilton AJ (in press): Super-aging Our Brains for Life, In Crowley C & Lodge HS: Younger Next Year, 15th Anniversary Edition, Workman Publishing, New York City, NY.
  • Hamilton AJ (in press): Super-aging and the Female. In Crowley C & Lodge HS: Younger Next Year, 15th Anniversary Edition, Workman Publishing, New York City, NY.
  • H. Prescher, A. Hamilton and J.W. Rozenblit, “Systems Design, Modeling, Simulation in Medicine,” in: Guide to Simulation-Based Disciplines, Simulation Foundations, Methods and Applications, (Eds. S. Mittal et al.), Springer International Publishing, pp. 209-234, July 2017, doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-61264-5_10

Peer-Reviewed Articles:

  • Arnon, S, Fisher P, Pickover A, Lowell A, Turner B, Hamilton JH, Hamilton AJ, Markowitz JC, Neria Y (2019; in submission): Equine Assisted Therapy for PTSD: Treatment Development and Pilot Findings Among Military Personnel
  • Hughes KE, Biffar D, Ahanonu EO, Cahir TM, Hamilton A, Sackles JC: Evaluation of an Innovative Bleeding Cricothyroidotomy Model, Cureus: 10 (9):e3327; DOI: 10.7759/cureus.33273
  • Lee S, Hua H, Nguyen M, Hamilton AJ (2018): Comparison of Six Display Modes for a Multi-Resolution Foveated Laparoscope. Surg. Endoscopy; 11 September 2018; PMID: 30206884; DOI: 10.1007/s00464-0186445-0; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30206684; accessed Spet 20, 2018
  • Hong M, Rozenblit JW, Hamilton AJ (2017): A Simulation-Based Assessment System for Computer-Assisted Surgical Training, in Proceedings of the 2017 Spring Simulation Conference on Modeling and Simulation in Medicine (SpringSim-MSM), pp. 834-844, 2017, Virginia Beach, VA
  • Grisham LM, Vickers V, Biffar DE, Prescher H, Battaglia N, Jarred JE, Reid SAH, Hamilton AJ (2016): Feasibility of Air Transport Simulation Training: A Case Series. Air Med. J.35: 308-313
  • Hong M, Hamilton A, and Rozenblit JW (April 2016): Modeling of a Transfer Task in Computer Assisted Surgical Training, Proceedings of the 2016 Spring Simulation Conference, Modeling and Simulation in Medicine, pages 794-799, doi: 10.13140/RG.2.1.3357.528
Degrees: 
MD: Harvard Medical School (with Honors), 1982
Honors and Awards: 
Bestowed state of Arizona’s highest academic honor of title of Regents’ Professorship upon the recommendation of University of Arizona and by unanimous vote of the Arizona Board of Regents, 2019
Silver Medal, “IPPY,” Independent Publishers Book Award for Lead with Your Heart (2016, North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, Inc.), 2017
Nautilus Gold Award in Non-Fiction for "Lead with Your Heart" (2016, N. Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, Inc.), 2017
Silver Medal, 29th Annual Benjamin Franklin Award for works of non-fiction published in the last year, Lead with Your Heart (2106, North Adams, MA: Storey PublishingInc., 2016), 2017
Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, awarded by Marquis Who’s Who in American Science & Technology, 2017
Selected by the International Assoc. of Healthcare Professionals as one of the Leading Physicians of the World, 2015
Best Film Documentary, Prescott, AZ & Aspen Film Festival, Playing with Magic, Ewing Productions, Carbondale CO, (Director Wayne Ewing; Producers Wayne Ewing and Allan Hamilton), 2014
Voted by peers “One of Best Doctors in America,” 1999-present
Silver Nautilus Book Award, 2009
NIH K-12 Science Teacher Program, John Hess, Pueblo High School, 1993
NIH K-12 Science Teacher Program, John López, Roskruge Middle School, 1994
Residency: 
National Institutes of Health - Bethesda, Neurology & Neurosurgery, 1983-1984
Massachusetts General Hospital, Neurosurgical Residency, 1984-1989
Massachusetts General Hospital, Neurosurgery, 1989-1990
Board Certifications: 
American Board of Neurological Surgery
Last modified date: August 18, 2021 - 3:24pm