A native of Toledo, Ohio Dr. Foster received a B.S. from Indiana University at Bloomington and his M.D. from the Medical College of Ohio. He then completed postgraduate residencies in General Surgery and Burn Surgery, and a fellowship in Trauma Surgery. Dr. Foster is currently the Medical Director at the Arizona Burn Center, the Director of Surgical Research, and The Program Director of the General Surgery Residency Training Program at Maricopa Integrated Health System. He also holds positions of Assistant Professor of Surgery at the Mayo Clinic and Medical School in Rochester, Minnesota and Scottsdale, Arizona and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Foster holds multiple certifications in the areas of surgery and burn surgery and is a Course Director and Instructor for the Advanced Burn Life Support Course, a course providing guidelines to doctors and nurses in the assessment and management from the time of injury to 24 hours post surgery.

Dr. Foster’s passion about healthcare within our community is evidenced by his visible participation in community organizations. He is a Board Member of multiple foundations including the Maricopa Medical Foundation and the Foundation for Burns and Trauma. He also serves as a camp physician at Camp Courage for Burned Children. This camp is a week long camp held in northern Arizona that is attended by child burn survivors. In addition to his public work in Arizona, Dr. Foster has also played key roles developing advanced healthcare in Mexico by working to develop a paramedic response system in the city of Hermosillo and is currently pursuing the establishment of a Burn Center in Sonora.

Dr. Foster is internationally recognized for his academic contribution to the field of burn care. He is the recent recipient of a 1.25 million dollar grant to study smoke inhalation injury in burn patients. He is also the principal investigator examining the safe use of recombinant thrombin in children. Thrombin is a blood coagulant and is necessary in the healing process. This work is particularly important as the type of thrombin most widely used today has been issued a ‘black box warning’ from the FDA, which is the strongest level of warning issued from this organization. Other grants include the molecular assessment of microflora in burn wounds, the development of a new antimicrobial therapy for skin grafts, and new treatments in septic shock.

Dr. Foster has also authored dozens of published articles and presentations in areas such as the management of burn scars, skin grafts, pediatric burns, blood transfusions for burn victims, and strategies for burn patients that fail conventional ventilation. He has been the invited guest lecturer for over 100 events and is an active investigator on four funded clinical research grants.