"We are extremely fortunate to have Dr. Shah presenting at HBOT 2019," remarked Hyperbaric Medicine International President R. Benjamin Richards. "He brings tremendous value to our members and delegates who are committed to advancing their professional knowledge." Dr. Shah will be giving a presentation "Hyperbaric Oxygen and Diabetic Foot Ulcers: Is there any evidence or is the evidence based on experience?"
His current position at the ACHM is part of a personal and professional journey that began decades earlier. He shared with us that he feels that the integration of Hyperbaric Medicine into wound care became his "calling" after opening his own private wound care practice in 1996. "I found that a lot of my geriatric patients had wounds and they were not receiving coordinated care and many of my diabetic patients were devastated when they got amputations. My diabetic patients were more fearful of amputation than death."
A year later he had the opportunity to begin using Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT). "Since then, taking care of complex wound patients and using hyperbaric medicine as a modality had given me a sense of meaning, purpose, and accomplishment. Hyperbaric Medicine has helped so many of my patients."
Shortly afterwards he became involved with the American College. "I was among the initial doctors who initially got certified by ACHM and by American Board of Preventive Medicine in the specialty of Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine. I liked ACHM’s tag line-- 'where wound healing begins,'" he recalled. "I felt that the ACHM is the organization which fulfills my professional mission."
In 2017 he became the President where he is dedicated to advancing the filed of Hyperbaric Medicine. "My vision for the ACHM is to be the premier professional society dedicated to appropriate utilization, the standard of care, education, training, certification, and recognition of hyperbaric oxygen therapy as a distinguished medical specialty."
In addition to serving as the president of ACHM, Dr. Shah is President of South Texas Wound Associates and the Medical Director for the Northeast and Mission Trail Baptist Wound Healing Center. He holds academic positions as an Associate Professor at the Osteopathic School of Medicine, University of the Incarnate Word, and Adjunct Professor at University of Texas Health Science Center. He lives and works in San Antonio Texas.
The HMI HBOT 2019 Hyperbaric Medicine Symposium will be held September 27-29 in Charleston, South Carolina. Register to attend the conference here. Save $75 by registering before May 31. Save even more by getting or renewing a HMI membership. HBOT 2019 will provide up to 18 hours of Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits.