About me
Dr. Michael F. Rotondo, MD, FACS, is a distinguished Senior Advisor at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), where he champions innovation, academic engagement, and leadership development. With an extensive career spanning over three decades in academic acute care surgery and healthcare executive leadership, Dr. Rotondo brings a wealth of experience to his current role. He is a principal advisor to the UR Health Lab, an innovative technology-oriented incubator he founded 11 years ago. Within this dynamic environment, Dr. Rotondo guides over 30 transdisciplinary investigators in developing entrepreneurial initiatives in digital health. He provides strategic and operational oversight for selected projects, mentors interdisciplinary teams, evaluates proposals, and actively supports the innovation pipeline while fostering a culture of experimentation and collaboration. He also plays a crucial role in facilitating unique partnerships and venture opportunities between the Health Lab and strategically aligned technology companies. Beyond innovation, Dr. Rotondo leverages his deep experience to enhance academic engagement across the medical center and is instrumental in designing and refining leadership development curricula for physician executives, aligning content with organizational priorities.
Prior to his current advisory role, Dr. Rotondo served as the Chief Executive Officer of the University of Rochester Medical Faculty Group (URMFG), Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, and Senior Vice President for the University of Rochester Medical Center. He led an academic, multidisciplinary physician practice comprising 2,400 faculty across 22 core specialty areas and over 135 sub-specialties. Under his leadership, he transformed a collection of clinical departments into a unified group practice, establishing a robust faculty-driven self-governance structure. His tenure, marked by digital innovation, saw the implementation of disciplined fiscal management, an emphasis on physician well-being, a new mission-balanced faculty compensation plan, and critical performance standards that led to a high-functioning care delivery system. These efforts, combined with a threefold increase in clinical volumes and revenues, anchored a system of eight hospitals and over 300 ambulatory locations across a 150-mile radius. Before joining URMFG, the Rochester native was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, and Director of the Center of Excellence for Trauma and Surgical Critical Care at Vidant Medical Centre in Greenville, North Carolina. During his time there, he significantly grew surgical volumes, broadened complex surgical care for underserved areas, and successfully led ECU Physicians to profitability within a year. A graduate of Georgetown University School of Medicine, Dr. Rotondo completed his general surgical training at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and was the first fellow in Traumatology and Surgical Critical Care at the University of Pennsylvania. At Penn, he quickly rose to Associate Professor and Trauma Medical Director. It was here that he and his colleagues published seminal work on Damage Control Surgery, which rapidly became a global standard of care, significantly improving patient outcomes. His trauma research has also heavily influenced guidelines aimed at eliminating preventable deaths after traumatic injuries and establishing consistent national standards of care. He is recognized as one of the few trauma surgeons to achieve acclaim in both urban and rural trauma settings and has been a visiting professor and invited speaker worldwide, contributing to numerous editorial review boards and authoring over 250 peer-reviewed publications.
Dr. Rotondo has also played a pivotal role in building and sustaining a national network of professional associations, holding increasingly progressive leadership roles throughout his career. He chaired the Committee on Trauma and served as Trauma Medical Director for the American College of Surgeons, helping establish new standards for trauma centers and systems. In 2011, he led a combined military-civilian consultation team into Afghanistan to evaluate the Joint Theater Trauma System during Operation Enduring Freedom, a report later referenced in the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine report on zero preventable mortality after trauma. He also served as president of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma, and the Halsted Society. He currently serves as a Director on the American Board of Surgery, the Dartmouth Hitchcock Board of Trustees, and as an advisor to early-stage health care companies and health care consulting firms. Outside of his professional life, Dr. Rotondo is married to Lydia Rotondo, DNP, RN, CNS, FNAP, a recently retired professor and distinguished leader in nursing education at the University of Rochester School of Nursing. He enjoys his time as a professional jazz drummer, woodworker, and avid outdoorsman.
