[1][2] Rasmussen had been assigned to Andrews Air Force Base just before September 11, 2001, and soon after began caring for the injured returning from Afghanistan at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
During this time in the Air Force, he initiated a research and innovation program aimed at developing a better understanding of vascular injury, hemorrhage control and shock as well as new approaches to managing these conditions.
[10][11] Rasmussen is a co-inventor of resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA), a minimally invasive approach used to sustain blood pressure and control bleeding in severely injured and shocked patients.
[15] Rasmussen had previously worked in support of the research and development of this bioengineered blood vessel which has significant potential to be used in the management of wartime vascular injury.
Rasmussen was a 2019–2020 Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Council of Deans fellow,[16] and in February 2020 he delivered the Peter Safar lecture at the Society of Critical Care Medicine in Orlando, Florida.