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.