Army Col. (Ret.) Frederick C. Lough was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers on graduation from West Point in 1970, completed Airborne and Ranger training, and was selected for medical school by the US Army.  He graduated from the George Washington University School of Medicine and trained as a General Surgeon at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.  He served as a surgeon in Korea, followed by training as a Cardiovascular Surgeon at Walter Reed. He became the Asst. Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Walter Reed and was then the Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at Letterman Army Medical Center.

Col. Lough pursued a civilian career as a surgeon in Reading, Pennsylvania.  While there, he performed or participated in over 10,000 open heart cases. This was followed by a brief time in McAllen, Texas in the private practice of cardiac surgery.  He was recruited to be the Director of Cardiac Surgery at the George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C . He joined the US Army Medical Corps Reserves in 2007 and served as a combat surgeon in Afghanistan in 2010 and 2012.  Upon return, he was commissioned in 2014 in the US Army Medical Corps and was assigned to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.  While on active duty he was the Deputy Chair, Department of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and Director of the Department of Defense Medical Ethics Center.  Col. Lough has also established the GEN Ronald H Griffith Institute for Ethics, Leadership and Military Medical Professionalism at USU. 

*Non-financial relationships: No non-financial relationships have been disclosed.