( continued from page 30)

After speaking at a conference in Turkey, Dr. O’ Brien was introduced to the President of Emergency Medicine in Poland who requested he give that same EMS talk at another conference on Central Europe Emergency Medicine. That opportunity led to several more conferences and a series of relationships built with emergency professionals around the world.

Sons Wesley and Jonathan in Ireland

Back in Louisville, Dr. O’ Brien now serves U of L as a Professor of Emergency Medicine and holds the additional titles of‘ Director of International Medicine’ and‘ Ultrasound Fellowship Director.’ The latter is brand new, an emerging opportunity created after Dr. O’ Brien realized the potential of the platform.

“ Ultrasound is one of the few technologies recently introduced to medicine that has produced better patient safety and care, and improved the physician-patient relationship,” he said, explaining that ultrasound can augment a physician’ s senses and push the boundaries capable within a physical exam.

“ If something turns sour in the ICU, you can have a hospital full of specialists but in that moment, there is nothing but you and the patient. Ultrasound can reduce the margin of error. It can tell you,‘ Wow this person has a pulmonary embolism or this person is in septic shock.’ You can get substantial amounts of data with, frankly, not a lot of training. I believe down the road you’ re going to see physicians carrying ultrasounds with them. They’ re getting that small and more affordable.”

The fellowship program begins this year, and Louisville is one of the earliest adopters of the technology in the US.“ What’ s beautiful about ultrasound is that it brings the doctor back to the patient,” he said.“ The patient knows they’ ve been examined. The doctor is reminded that he’ s taking care of patients. The intel he collects is actionable. It might actually save the physician-patient relationship until something else gets in the way.”

When he isn’ t working with an emergency service, serving in the ER or giving talks overseas, Dr. O’ Brien loves photography and said some of his favorite international locations to photograph were Poland, Hong Kong and Ireland. He has three children: Kirsten, Wesley and Jonathon and a granddaughter, Kylee. He ' s an avid cyclist and recommends cycling abroad as the best way to get to know people and local culture. His riding companion and the love of his life is Dr. Kristine Krueger.“ Call her my lovely bride, she’ ll get a kick out of that,” he said.

The young boy who used a cardboard sphygmomanometer in his dad’ s office could hardly have imagined that he would, among many things, one day be teaching other countries how to organize and care for their patients better. He had dreams of space, so maybe a world-traveling physician is the next best thing.

“ There’ s a final common pathway in all this,” Dr. O’ Brien said.“ I ' m a firm believer that people should be empowered to make their own health decisions, but often people are in a situation where they can’ t make a choice about their health care. In that environment, when people are essentially helpless, it’ s nice to figure out a way to get them the highest quality care they can get. That echoes through a lot of choices in my career.”

Aaron Burch is the communications specialist for the Greater Louisville Medical Society.

32 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE