POCUS Core Faculty
Co-Directors
Michelle Fleshner, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine | Division of Hospital Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine
Dr. Fleshner is an Academic Hospitalist and Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center. She completed her Internal Medicine Residency training and a Chief Resident year at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), where she created and directed a residency-wide POCUS curriculum. She was part of the global health track at UPMC, where she spent a total of 5 months working in Malawi, using and teaching POCUS on a daily basis, coming up with innovative ways to create POCUS portfolios and obtain quality assurance from abroad. Since joining the faculty at University of Colorado, she has developed a system for credentialing in lung ultrasound that has been utilized by numerous faculty, working towards credentialing for all faculty involved in procedures and procedure teaching. In addition, she has developed a novel, longitudinal POCUS curriculum for all IM residents that began in 2022. She is particularly interested in creating an environment for safe and high quality use of POCUS amongst hospitalists.
Carolina Ortiz-Lopez, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine | Division of Hospital Medicine, University of Colorado
Dr. Ortiz-Lopez is an Academic Hospitalist and Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She completed her internal medicine residency and chief year where she created and directed a residency-wide POCUS and Procedure curriculum. She pursued additional training by completing the American College of Chest Physicians and Society of Hospital Medicine POCUS certificate program. Since joining the faculty at the University of Colorado, along with other POCUS faculty, she has developed a system for credentialing in lung ultrasound that has been used by numerous faculties, working towards credentialing for all faculty involved in procedures and procedure teaching. In addition, she has developed a novel, longitudinal POCUS curriculum for all IM residents that began in 2022. She is interested in the impact of POCUS on patient outcomes. She is also a high-volume proceduralist and serves as core faculty in the Procedure Consult Service.
Co-Assistant Directors
Elri Duncan, PA-C
Instructor | Division of Hospital Medicine, University of Colorado
Elri Duncan is a PA-C, who practices as an Academic Hospitalist and Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center. She completed her Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies at Western University of Health Sciences in California in 2014 and started her clinical career in community hospital medicine. Since her appointment at the DHM in 2019, she has been integrally involved in the Medicine Procedure Service, serving as part of the inaugural APP cohort of core faculty for MPS, which is where she was first exposed to the utility of bedside POCUS. She has also assisted in teaching lung ultrasound workshops organized by the Clinical POCUS Co-Directors and facilitated similar workshops at the 2023 AAPA Hospitalist Bootcamp. Additionally, she is a regular facilitator for CHAPA and IMRP clinical POCUS workshops. She is especially interested in the expansion of POCUS education and credentialing to APFs, and ultimately throughout UCH, while maintaining optimal quality control via standardized quality metrics.
Andrea King, PA-C
Instructor | Division of Hospital Medicine, University of Colorado
Andrea King is a Physician Assistant Academic Hospitalist and Instructor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She completed her PA training with a Masters in Medical Sciences at Midwestern University, Glendale Arizona. After moving back to Colorado, she spent a brief time practicing in Orthopedics before spending an additional year training in the APP Hospitalist Medicine Fellowship here at the University of Colorado at Anschutz. Since then, she was hired as a faculty member for the Division of Hospital Medicine as well as core faculty member for the Procedure Service. She took a keen interest in POCUS while learning ultrasound guided procedures and has since progressed and broadened her skill set. She enjoys teaching POCUS to faculty and learners in the hospital as well as at national conferences. She is especially interested clinical decision making with the integration of bedside POCUS.
Procedure Service Liaison
Henry R Kramer, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine | Division of Hospital Medicine, University of Colorado
Dr. Kramer is an academic hospitalist at University of Colorado Hospital-Anschutz and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado Denver. He completed his residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital. He worked for several years as an academic hospitalist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and as an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where he taught ultrasound guided procedures to medical students, residents, and faculty. He joined the CU faculty in November 2018 and is the Director for the medicine procedure service. Among other professional endeavors, he is interested in procedural education, the use of ultrasound for clinical decision making and procedural guidance, and multidisciplinary approaches to managing complicated pleural effusions.
Advanced Clinical Scholars POCUS Director
Kevin Sullivan, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine | Division of Hospital Medicine, University of Colorado
Admin
Melisha Bergerman, BS
Senior Events and Communications Professional | Division of Hospital Medicine, University of Colorado
Cat Anderson, BS
Admin and Operations Professional | Division of Hospital Medicine, University of Colorado
Contact Us
Program Administrator
Melisha Begerman
POCUSDHM@cuanschutz.edu