Dr. Sonya Tuerff, MBA, FACS, FSVS, RPVI, CHCQM, is a vascular surgeon with over 20 years of experience. She is currently the Medical Director, Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at Memorial Hospital.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your work and how POCUS relates.
I have been a vascular surgeon for over 20 years. Technology in our specialty has enhanced our ability to care for more complex vascular disease in older and sicker patients. The ability to make rapid, accurate diagnoses using ultrasound is a keystone for our specialty. As the Medical Director for Vascular Surgery for Memorial Hospital, a large academic public teaching hospital system in Southeastern Florida, I use ultrasound in some fashion every day. The POCUS specialty exams are helpful tools for evaluating vascular disease in our patients, especially in the Emergency Room setting. Use of ultrasound imaging enhances physical exam findings and provides real time information about the vascular system.
Q: Why did you pursue POCUS certification and how did you find the process to be?
I initially became POCUS certified during my general surgery residency in NYC. We used POCUS for trauma evaluations to facilitate care at a busy level 1 trauma center. POCUS has been helpful throughout my career and I use ultrasound on a daily basis to enhance my physical exam and other imaging studies. As a Vascular and Endovascular Surgeon, I pursued POCUS specialty certification to help teach medical students, residents and Advanced Practice Professionals at a VA hospital where Point of Care imaging was important. The process is straightforward. I have a lot of experience in ultrasound as an RPVI (Registered Physician in Vascular Interpretation). It was helpful to me to review the important aspects of imaging in a comprehensive yet easily accessible way during the certification process.
Q: Share a positive message or quote with the community:
Most people go into medicine to make a difference. The science of medicine changes and we all have to be open to learning every day to continue to serve our patients. POCUS certification and being comfortable with new skills and evaluation techniques is part of this journey. Continue to stay true to your oath:
“I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:
I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.
I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug.
I will not be ashamed to say “I know not”, nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient’s recovery.
I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.
I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person’s family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.
I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.
I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.
If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.”
