Hennepin Healthcare is dedicated to delivering exceptional care to every member of our community and promoting wellness through education and research. While we have the responsibility of supporting and uplifting our local community, training hundreds of residents and fellows each year also means we play a vital role in shaping healthcare on a global scale. Emergency medicine physician Andrea Dreyfuss, MD, MPH, witnesses this firsthand as Hennepin Healthcare's Global Health Ultrasound Director and Ultrasound Fellowship Director.
Journey to Hennepin Healthcare
Early in her medical career, Dr. Dreyfuss saw a need for point of care ultrasound education in Latin American countries like her home country of Peru. Point of care ultrasound involves the use of portable ultrasound technology at a patient's bedside. The images scanned on this machine are quickly and accurately interpreted by the caregiver to help diagnose and treat a patient.
Point-of-care ultrasound can be especially helpful when resources are limited and other imaging tools like x-ray are not available. "It is a very useful if not critical tool. I can't even imagine practicing medicine without it," says Dr. Dreyfuss. Her passion for point of care ultrasound education led Dr. Dreyfuss to create Peru's first emergency medicine ultrasound fellowship in 2018, and the non-profit Ondas de Latinoamérica whose mission is to expand this work to other Latin American countries.
"When we first started, we would go to hospitals and train providers, and we would also lend them a handheld machine that allows you to do tele ultrasound, meaning if a new learner has a machine and I'm not there next to them, they can connect virtually and we can talk or even guide them through a procedure," says Dr. Dreyfuss.
With the success of her first fellowship program in Peru, it wasn't long before Dr. Dreyfuss, who then worked at a hospital system in California, began searching for an organization that shared her passion for global population health – she felt an immediate pull towards Hennepin Healthcare. "I've always worked in the county system, and I think when I saw the level of innovation, research and excellence that the emergency department in particular at Hennepin was able to provide to the patient population that we serve, that moved me a lot," says Dr. Dreyfuss. "When I interviewed for positions and saw that Hennepin even had an emergency medicine fellowship in global health at that time, it became clear – this was the place that I should come to."
Making connections across borders
Dr. Dreyfuss officially started her journey at Hennepin Healthcare in August of 2021, and since then has gone on to create and strengthen Hennepin Healthcare's ultrasound fellowship program and, in partnership with Ondas de Latinoamérica, create point of care ultrasound fellowships in seven additional Latin American countries.
Within Hennepin Healthcare's emergency medicine ultrasound program, most fellows have gone with Dr. Dreyfuss to Peru for a two-week boot camp comprised of lectures, hands on teaching, and scanning in different hospitals. Additionally, during their final year of residency, Hennepin Healthcare emergency medicine residents have the opportunity to participate in a one-month elective at one of the sites where Dr. Dreyfuss and her Ondas team are involved.
"It's so relevant to the patient population that we see at Hennepin – I would say probably 20% of the patients that we see in the emergency department speak Spanish as their first language," says Dr. Dreyfuss. "This year, we will have visitors from Brazil, Guatemala and likely Colombia and Argentina. I am also very excited that we may be able to increase the number of Hennepin Healthcare emergency medicine residents traveling to our programs in Latin America." These programs allow residents from Hennepin and fellows from Latin America to work together and learn from each other – reinforcing Hennepin Healthcare's commitment to improving standard of care through education. "Our international work helps our residents and faculty grow natural cultural connections and competencies that enhance our local work and vice-versa," says Dr. Dreyfuss.
"We are creating leaders on point of care ultrasound in Latin America who visit us at Hennepin and teach us about their POCUS innovations and emergency medicine practice in their countries, where they often have limited resources and also have more expertise in pathologies that we do not see as often in our system."
Acknowledging our global responsibility
Although the primary focus of systems like ours is our local community, Hennepin Healthcare is also creating a global impact by leading initiatives on topics like point of care ultrasound, offering global health training and education, and pioneering research and innovation. In other words, Hennepin Healthcare has "global responsibility." "When I reference the 'global responsibility' of HCMC, our county hospital, I am acknowledging that medical expertise carries an ethical dimension that extends beyond geographic boundaries. Hennepin's commitment to health equity locally naturally extends to addressing disparities globally, making our ultrasound initiative a perfect embodiment of Hennepin's mission to provide exceptional care without exception, regardless of borders," says. Dr. Dreyfuss.
"What makes Hennepin's global impact particularly significant is how it stems organically from the institution's core strengths—serving diverse populations, providing high-quality care in resource-conscious ways, and developing practical solutions to complex healthcare challenges. These same capabilities that make Hennepin effective locally translate powerfully to global contexts." It's clear that Hennepin Healthcare's unique position as Minnesota's largest public teaching hospital, coupled with our mission of providing outstanding care for all, offers innovative ways to influence the health of local and global communities. The providers who learn and work within our system experience this up close, and it's one of many reasons they choose to practice here. "Hennepin offers the chance to practice medicine that truly matters—where your skills directly translate to improved outcomes for individuals and communities both locally and, through initiatives like the point of care ultrasound program in Latin America, globally," says. Dr. Dreyfuss. "This connection between daily work and broader impact creates a sense of fulfillment that's difficult to quantify but impossible to replace."
