Category Archives: Rural

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.


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.


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!


Creating Impact in Rural Areas Using POCUS



Listen to Mark Shaffer, MD as he discuss his use of POCUS for rural healthcare. Dr. Shaffer grew up outside of Baltimore, Maryland and graduated from the Johns Hopkins University in 2004 and from Harvard Medical School in Boston in 2009. Dr. Shaffer then moved south to Columbia, South Carolina where he completed his Family Medicine Residency at Richland Hospital in 2012. After residency, he felt called to international service and pursued a Global Health Fellowship with the USC School of Medicine. He worked in Tanzania, East Africa for over 2 years, first teaching doctors how to treat heart disease, and then running a large program for HIV patients. Eventually, he and his wife were ready to move closer to home. In 2015, Dr. Shaffer returned to the University of South Carolina School of Medicine and now works in resident training, hospital care, and outpatient care at the John A Martin Primary Health Care Center. He is board certified in Family Medicine with special interests in obstetrics, pediatric obesity, natural family planning and international health. While working in Tanzania Dr. Shaffer helped develop a program for bedside cardiothoracic ultrasound at the local hospital that persists today. He has published in the field of international POCUS FAST exam training and authored chapters and taught CME courses on bedside cardiac ultrasound.