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Jay Doucet, MD, is a board-certified surgeon and intensivist who serves as the Chief of the Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, Burns, and Acute Care Surgery and as medical director of both the Surgical Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Preparedness and Response at UC San Diego Health. He performs trauma and general surgery and provides surgical critical care to patients. His areas of expertise include chest and abdominal injury, gunshot injury, rib plating (an operation to fix broken ribs), abdominal sepsis, diverticular disease, abdominal and groin hernia, gallbladder disease and soft tissue infections.

As a professor in the Department of Surgery, Dr. Doucet teaches medical students, residents, and fellows. His research interests include the use of ultrasound in trauma and critical care and the economics of insurance and surgical access.

He has presented on topics related to trauma training both nationally and internationally. His articles on topics such as trauma, ultrasound, and transfusion management have been published in peer-reviewed journals. He was the editor of the ACS Disaster Management and Emergency Preparedness Course Manual.

Prior to joining UC San Diego Health, Dr. Doucet was an attending surgeon at the U.S. Navy Trauma Training Center at Los Angeles County Medical Center/ University of Southern California, followed by two years at the University of British Columbia, where he was responsible for expanding the mission of the Canadian Forces Trauma Training Center as Director. Dr. Doucet has served on several overseas tours as a military surgeon in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Desert Storm, and elsewhere and also served in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) as a general duty medical officer and flight surgeon. He was team doctor to the RCAF "Snowbirds" air demonstration squadron for two years. He also served as an exchange officer with the US Navy and in UK Army Field Hospitals.

Dr. Doucet completed a fellowship in trauma and surgical critical care at UC San Diego School of Medicine. He also completed a fellowship in trauma and catastrophic surgery at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre Health, Dalhousie University, in Nova Scotia, Canada, where he was also a resident in general surgery. Dr. Doucet earned his medical degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada and holds a Master of Science degree in blood substitutes from Dalhousie University. He is board certified in surgery and surgical critical care and is also a registered diagnostic medical sonographer (RDMS). He is also board certified in NeuroCritical Care by the American Board of Anesthesiology.

Dr. Doucet is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS) and the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada (FRCSC). He is a Governor of the American College of Surgeons (ACS). He chairs the Transfusion and Emergency Management Committees at UC San Diego Health.

He has received numerous awards, including the 2018 Emergency Medicine Health Care Hero Award from the San Diego Business Journal and an honorary medal from the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma in recognition of his major contributions to combat surgery.

Dr. Doucet is a commercial pilot and flight instructor. He was an onsite trauma surgeon at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada.

Dr. Doucet's areas of special interest and accomplishments are:
Trauma and surgical critical care
Prehospital and Combat Casualty care
Disaster medicine
Transfusion and Blood Substitutes
Surgical and Trauma Education and Simulation