Caroline Auxier

I’m a fifth-year medical student at Touro University California and an Academic Medicine Predoctoral Teaching Fellow, which means I get to spend an extra year of medical school teaching first- and second-year students through doctoring lectures, simulation labs, clinical skills sessions, and ultrasound workshops. My journey with POCUS actually started in those same kinds of rooms, first as a student and then as a volunteer scan model through GUSI MedConnect. That experience got me hooked, and I’ve since pursued training on my own and through emergency medicine electives. I’m applying into emergency medicine this coming cycle.

What I love about ultrasound is that it’s one of the rare pieces of modern medical technology that actually brings us closer to our patients instead of pulling us away from the bedside. So much of what we do now happens through screens and waiting, waiting on imaging, waiting on labs, waiting to make the next decision. POCUS lets us answer questions in the moment and keep care moving forward, all while staying with the person in front of us. I definitely don’t consider myself an expert, but I love this medium and I’m so excited to keep learning through both teaching and continued clinical training.

Looking ahead, I’m especially interested in how POCUS can be applied in street medicine and global health, and I’m always thinking about how a portable probe might fit into care delivered in those kinds of settings. Outside of medicine, you can find me rock climbing, trail running, or spending time with my community here in the Bay.