Category Archives: Career

Increasing Global Access to POCUS



About Our Guest

Brandon Greer, NP, has been a Nurse Practitioner for 1.5 years, and an Emergency Nurse for about 10 years. He has worked in a number of facilities, ranging from outpatient clinics to level 1 trauma centers. Brandon also teaches as an adjunct nursing professor, as well as an instructor of ACLS, BLS, PALS, and POCUS. He has worked to augment the role of POCUS in his community, using it at Urgent Care, the Emergency Department, and in outpatient services. His is also helping to establish and augment a POCUS education program out of Orlando, and has taught POCUS for populations such as nurses, advanced practice providers, EMTs, and residents. Brandon visits Peru annually to work in community clinics around Trujillo and Ollantaytambo. In this role, he began introducing the concept of POCUS in the hopes of bringing greater services and access to populations with greater health disparities.

Brandon is a current Doctoral student as well, with the intention of building a more formalized and intensive POCUS program as part of his Doctoral project. As part of this, he recently published an article that speaks to the utility of POCUS, and how more disciplines should consider adopting it as part of their practice. Brandon’s wife is also currently in school to be a nurse practitioner, and has been dabbling with the use of ultrasound herself. Outside of Brandon’s medical roles, he and his wife spend a large amount of time traveling. They live in a rural area with a menagerie of dogs, cats, and chickens. Brandon is also a triathlete, currently training for an Ironman, and a snowboarder and snowmobiler in the winter.


A Lifetime of POCUS Learning



Arun Nagdev, M.D., is Exo’s Senior Director of Clinical Education. Separate from his capacity with Exo, he also serves as the Director of Emergency Ultrasound at Highland General Hospital as well as a Clinical Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). In his previous academic position, Dr. Nagdev started the point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) program and fellowship at Brown University. Dr. Nagdev is a highly respected international POCUS researcher and educator. He has been a thought leader throughout his career, publishing more than 90 peer-reviewed papers on various aspects of POCUS including pain management, cardiac arrest and volume resuscitation. His work led to recognition and national awards at both the American College of Emergency Medicine (ACEP) and Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM). His desire to increase clinical POCUS education for residents and medical students has garnered him numerous teaching awards at Brown University, Highland Hospital and UCSF. Over the course of his career, he has been an invited lecturer for POCUS education at numerous national emergency medicine conferences (ACEP, SAEM, AAEM, etc). He currently serves as president of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) POCUS section and is the incoming president for ACEP Ultrasound section.


Keep exploring point-of-care ultrasound at POCUS.org.


Physician Assistants Pursue POCUS Training



Nicole Reichhart, PA-C, is Assistant Professor and didactic faculty for the California State University, Monterey Bay Master of Science Physician Assistant program. She earned a Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies from Albany Medical College in 2012 and completed an Emergency Medicine fellowship at Eastern Virginia Medical School in 2013. She has piloted a point-of-care ultrasound curriculum throughout the didactic phase of the MSPA program, preparing the students to enter their clinical year with a vast POCUS skillset. Nicole embeds POCUS into both the anatomy and physiology and clinical skills courses. She is passionate about implementing point-of-care ultrasound in physician assistant school curriculum and providing her students with opportunities to collaborate in the shared mission of improving global health and setting standards for excellence in POCUS. She has nine years of clinical experience as a PA, much of which has been in caring for patients in underserved communities. Nicole is a military spouse, mother of three children under 5, and enjoys a good brunch.


POCUS Augments Critical Care Nursing Diagnostics



Leon Chen, DNP, is a board certified acute care nurse practitioner with background in critical care medicine. He is the clinical program manager of research and simulated learning for the department of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at memorial Sloan Kettering cancer center, and a clinical assistant professor at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing. He is a strong proponent of utilizing point of care ultrasonography to rapidly delineate differential diagnoses and to guide resuscitation. Leon is also a fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, and the NY Academy of Medicine. He serves on the editorial board of Critical Care Nursing Quarterly and the Journal of American Association of Nurse Practitioners. He earned a certificate of completion in critical care ultrasonography from the American College of Chest Physicians and is active in point of care ultrasonography education.

 

Resources

Read this study about how nurses’ use of ultrasound enhanced the diagnostic process and level of care heart failure patients receive at an outpatient clinic.

Examine this review of 11 full-text publications and 10 conference abstracts found that patients experience positive benefits when renal nurses and technicians use POCUS. Learn more here.

Discover why the Canadian Association of Radiologists Position Statement on Point-of-Care Ultrasound also relates to nurse practitioners and other health care providers who use POCUS.


Paving the Way for POCUS



Becca Davis, MD, is an Internal Medicine physician at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and an assistant professor at Sidney Kimmel Medical College. She completed her medical school training and internal medicine residency at the University of Pennsylvania where she went on to be chief resident before making the move to Jefferson. She is currently an assistant program director for the Internal Medicine/Primary Care Residency and associate program director for the Internal Medicine POCUS Fellowship, which just started this year at Jefferson. While she was lucky enough to get some exposure to ultrasound in residency, she really developed her POCUS skill set two years ago when she became an attending. She works closely with the EM and critical care teams to help spread her passion for POCUS across the department and participates in the institutional Point of Care Ultrasound Committee. Primarily, Becca is working to create a formalized POCUS curriculum and electives for the residency and develop a clinical pathway for hospitalists to gain POCUS skills in addition to her fellowship and clinical responsibilities.


The Value of Volunteering



 

James A. DellaValle, MD, is a graduate of the Drexel University School of Medicine. He is a board-certified in emergency and family medicine, focusing on those in rural areas and under-served populations. Dr. DellaValle served as medical advisor and member of the Board of Trustees of Hands Together, a non-governmental organization (NGO) working with the poorest of the poor in Haiti, for 15 years. He has been awarded a fellowship by the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture and the American College of Emergency Physicians. He is also certified by ARDMS in abdominal, cardiac, and vascular ultrasound. Dr. DellaValle continues to be involved in undergraduate and graduate medical education. Presently, he serves as an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at The Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York, and as the Chair of the APCA POCUS Certification Assessment Committee.


Improving Global Health Through POCUS25



Dr. Victor Rao is a radiologist and POCUS pioneer who first introduced POCUS to future medical professionals at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine (USCSOM). Here, he developed the POCUS curriculum, and the POCUS learning and eLearning content geared towards medical and physician assistant students. Dr. Rao went on to present POCUS to the Arusha Lutheran Medical Center in Tanzania and the University of Santo Thomas in Manila, Philippines. His passions are ultrasound and point-of-care ultrasound.


Mental Health for Healthcare Professionals



 

 

Katie Wiskar, MD, is an academic general internist working at Vancouver General Hospital in Vancouver, Canada. She recently completed a year of dedicated POCUS fellowship including training in Western University’s prestigious Critical Care Ultrasound program. Her POCUS passions include all things echocardiography, clinical integration of ultrasound findings, and correcting common POCUS myths and misunderstandings.


Physician Recruiting in the Great White North



Daphné Savoy is a Physician Recruiter in Northern British Columbia (Canada) – she is passionate about life in the North. Daphné lived in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, before moving to her current home in Fort St. John, British Columbia. In her free time, Daphné enjoys fishing, spending time in the wilderness, and dreaming about having her own team of sled dogs!


The Benefits of POCUS in a Family Practice Setting



 

Dr. Nicole Yedlinsky is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, KS. She received her medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, LA. She completed Family Medicine
Residency at Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Bragg, NC, and Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship at VCU-Fairfax Family Practice, Fairfax, VA.

She practices family medicine, obstetrics, and sports medicine, and utilizes POCUS daily. She is registered in musculoskeletal ultrasonography (RMSK). Dr. Yedlinsky has established POCUS training for the family medicine residents, teaches MSK ultrasound to the sports medicine fellows, and is
developing curriculum for medical student ultrasound training.