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Dr. Kobayashi joined the Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, Burns and Acute Care Surgery at UC San Diego in August 2010 as an assistant professor of clinical surgery. Her current duties include clinical care in the outpatient, inpatient and intensive care setting as an attending physician on the Trauma, General Surgery and Surgical Intensive Care Services.

Dr. Kobayashi is dedicated to teaching medical students, residents and critical care fellows. She is also involved in teaching in the community as an instructor for the many Advanced Trauma Operative Management (ATOM) and Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) courses offered at UC San Diego every year.

Dr. Kobayashi earned her medical degree at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center where she had the opportunity to train under the tutelage of some of the most influential surgeons in the field of trauma including Dr. C. Cothren, Dr. J. Johnson, and Drs. Earnest and JB Moore at the Denver Health Medical Center. She completed her internship and residency in general surgery at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She completed advanced training in a Trauma/Critical Care fellowship at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center. LAC+USC is a busy Level I trauma center with an Acute Care Surgery model run by the Division of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care.

Dr. Kobayashi's training included a dedication to hands-on clinical teaching at all levels, including pre-medical volunteers, medical students and residents. Additionally, the unique collaboration between LAC+USC and the U.S. Naval Trauma Training Center allowed her to be involved in the training of multiple groups of corpsmen, nurses, physicians and physician extenders in preparation for their deployment to active military conflict zones. Additionally, she has experience with other teaching modalities including: didactic teaching during journal clubs, core lectures and medical student lectures, both didactic and skills-based teaching as an ATLS and ATOM instructor, and module-based teaching as an instructor in the Fundamentals of Critical Care Course taught by the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

Research Overview
My research focuses on clinical questions in trauma management, particularly traumatic brain injury, management of the potential organ donor, and venous thromboembolic complications in trauma and the ICU.

Research Topics
- Trauma