Dr. Karen Shackelford, M.D., is a graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, where she also completed a four-year residency as an emergency medicine physician. She received board certification from the American Board of Emergency Medicine and began work as an attending emergency physician at the Central Mississippi Methodist Hospital, a level two trauma center. She also practiced locum tenens at several critical access hospitals and a small suburban hospital close to home.
Past clinical volunteer positions include medical director at a need-based neighborhood clinic; representing the Catholic diocese in citywide planning meetings for emergency measures to temporarily provide care to refugees fleeing Hurricane Katrina; and providing care at emergency shelters for those fleeing the hurricane.
Dr. Shackelford has worked as a medical writer and editor since 2012. She was director of medical content for BoardVitals, a division of Ascend Learning, for four years, directing content updates and completion of new question banks. As a freelance contractor, she has produced most types of medical content, including preparation for licensure exams and specialty/subspecialty board exams, pharmacist continuing education and updates, patient information, practice website information, and several series of complex case reports in neurosurgery, orthopedics, and other surgical specialties s for NYU Langone, New York’s leading hospital.
Her work has included scripts, preparation of regulatory submissions, and research papers for pharmaceutical companies, promotional education content, blogs, and journal articles for other physicians, expert content for consumer health websites, white papers, dissertations, medical and dental website SEO-oriented articles, ACLS, PALS, and NRP certification course books, eBooks on nutrition and health and a biography of a corporate CEO for private distribution.
