Dr. James B. Burns

I was born and raised in Washington, Pennsylvania. Prior to this opportunity, I was on the faculty at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Jacksonville for almost nine years. I moved here for an exceptional opportunity to be on the faculty at East Tennessee state University Department of Surgery and to be the Medical Director of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care at Johnson City Medical Center. It was a great chance to develop a nationally recognized rural acute care surgery program. This is such a beautiful area, and I was impressed with how friendly people were when I first interviewed. I grew up in a pre-hospital background and worked EMS myself. I love the specialty of trauma and found it was what I always came back to—helping people on their worst day. However, my biggest influence in medicine was my father. He was in the first ever paramedic class in Pennsylvania. I grew up learning how to help people, whether less fortunate than myself, sick or injured. As a provider, I most enjoy taking care of people. In trauma, we often see patients on their worst day. Helping them heal and recover is a process, and it can be awesome to see. I’ve been married to my wife for 17 years. My daughter attends University School and runs cross-country and track. My son also attends UH and plays soccer for FC Dallas Tri. We have two rescue dogs, Lucky and Simon. I coach travel soccer whenever I am able for my son’s team.

Dr. Burns is highly rated in 4 conditions, according to our data. His top areas of expertise are Chronic Subdural Hematoma, Subdural Hematoma, Delirium, Hip Replacement, and Vertebroplasty.