Michael J. Sise, MD, FACS
Dr. Michael Sise has nationwide experience as an expert witness for both defense and plaintiff’s attorneys. He is the eldest of at the nine sons of the late Judge Robert Sise, Chief Administrative Judge of the State of New York and there are another nine attorneys and two judges in his immediate family. Dr. Sise understands the extremely important role of medical experts in malpractice litigation.
Dr. Sise is the senior trauma and vascular surgeon at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, California, a Level I trauma center. He obtained his general surgery and vascular surgery training at Naval Medical Center San Diego and he completed a 20-year career as a Naval Medical Officer. Dr. Sise served as the Trauma Medical Director of Scripps Mercy Hospital Trauma Services Department from 1994 through 2016 and subsequently served as the Chief of the Medical Staff and Credentials Committee Chairman.
Dr. Sise is board certified in surgery, vascular surgery, and surgical critical care and he continues to practice, teach residents, and participate in clinical research in each of these specialties. He has published extensively in the medical and surgical literature. Dr. Sise is a past Clinical Professor of Surgery at the UCSD School of Medicine and the senior teaching faculty member of the General Surgery Residency of Naval Medical Center San Diego. Dr. Sise served the Vice President of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma and the Chairman of the AAST Foundation. He is also past Chairman of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma Prevention Subcommittee. He lectures frequently on topics related to trauma, acute care surgery, vascular surgery, and quality improvement at numerous regional and national medical symposia.
As a Naval Officer, Dr. Sise served as chief surgeon aboard aircraft carriers USS Constellation, USS Kitty Hawk, USS Ranger, USS Eisenhower and USS Belleau Wood. Dr. Sise was Chief Surgeon aboard amphibious carriers USS Guam and USS Iwo Jima in the Persian Gulf during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990 and 1991. In 2007, he served as the Senior Visiting Surgeon at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany assisting military surgeons in the care of wounded warriors evacuated from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Africa. He also continues to train military surgeons for combat casualty care as a faculty member of the Departments of Surgery and Emergency Medicine Residencies at Naval Medical Center San Diego. The Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Team at Scripps Mercy each year trains over 80 Navy residents and physician assistants who complete one-month to three-month rotations.
Dr. Sise and his wife and colleague Beth, who is a nurse and an attorney and the immediate past Director of Injury Prevention and Trauma Research Programs at Scripps Mercy Hospital, have received numerous awards for their efforts in prevention of violence, injury, and substance-abuse.