Thomas R. Hartka, MD, MS, MSDS

Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine
Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Director, Emergency Medicine Research Office
Assistant Medical Director, UVA Center for Applied Biomechanics
Fellow & Board Member, Association for Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAEM)

P.O. Box 800699
Charlottesville, VA 22908-0699
Phone: 434-924-8485
Fax: 434-924-2877
E-mail: trh6u@uvahealth.org

Learn more: read Dr. Hartka’s faculty profile with School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Dr. Thomas Hartka is an Associate Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, Virginia, and serves as Director of the Emergency Medicine Research Office. He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer engineering from Virginia Tech. He completed medical school, residency training, and a subsequent fellowship in trauma research at the University of Virginia before joining the faculty in 2014. He also holds an additional appointment as an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and serves as Assistant Medical Director at the Center for Applied Biomechanics. 

Dr. Hartka’s research centers on automotive safety and injury severity assessment, with a focus on improving the quantification and prediction of injury in motor vehicle collisions. He has presented his work at national and international conferences and has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on more than 30 extramurally funded studies. He currently leads the University of Virginia’s participation in the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) as site principal investigator.

His additional interests include medical education, where he has developed an elective on AI in Healthcare for 4th-year medical students.