Born and raised in Central Western Massachusetts, Dr. Shields attended a regional junior-senior high school where she played 3 season sports (field hockey, basketball, fast pitch softball). Graduating 3rd in her class, she attended Rensselear Polytechnic Institute and Albany Medical College in their 6-year BioMedical program receiving her BS and MD degree in 1982. She continued to play sports throughout her education. After completing a categorical internship at Albany Medical Center Hospital, she went to Rhein Main AFB, Germany as a General Medical Officer from 1983-1985. During her time in Germany, she learned how to ski (earning a bronze medal in the USAFE cross country races), developed a love for travel and learned how to listen to patients, examine and treat them. In 1985, she left Germany to become the first woman Orthopaedic Surgery resident at Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center, Lackland AFB, TX. This was her introduction to San Antonio. She made good friends and returned repeated throughout the following years to visit​.
After Wilford Hall, she was stationed at Kirkland AFB, NM as a general orthopaedic surgeon. She then completed a foot and ankle orthopaedic fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin from 1991-1992. After completing the fellowship, she returned to Kirkland AFB as Chief of Orthopaedic Surgery. Finishing her AF career in 1994 as a Lieutenant Colonel, she joined Advanced Orthopaedic Associates (AOA) in Wichita, Kansas in 1994 where she spent the next 24 years with a one-year hiatus to New Hampshire to care for her parents.
She is and was an educator teaching and mentoring high school students, premedical students, PA students, PT students, family medicine residents and orthopaedic surgery residents. She was a full clinical professor with KU School of Medicine – Wichita. She hosted international scholars from India, Macedonia, Egypt, Bolivia and Columbia for the AAOS (American Association Orthopaedic Surgeons) She has completed over 50 volunteer medical missions to Vietnam, Haiti, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and has spoken at international conferences including Bolivia, Egypt. England and Germany.
She has served on the boards of the AAOS and the AOFAS (American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society). She is past president of the OEF (Outreach Educational Foundation) now the Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Foundation. She likes to ski, scuba dives, travels, takes above and under water photographs, walks, plays tennis, reads, knits, plays bridge and overall enjoys life!
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Dr. Shields is glad to return to San Antonio and join TruOrtho as a founding partner in our “ladypod group…aka woman’s orthopaedic group”. Her philosophy is “the patient comes first”.
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Affiliations:
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AAOS (American Association Orthopaedic Surgeons)
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AOFAS (American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society)
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TMA (Texas Medical Association)
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BCMS (Bexar County Medical Society)
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HVO (Health Volunteers Overseas)
Dr. Shields specializes in operative and non-operative care of the foot and ankle.
Conditions treated include
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Fractures
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Tendon injuries
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Sprains and strains
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Deformities/Reconstruction
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High arched or cavus foot deformities
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Flat foot, Planovalgus or Pes Planus deformities
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Bunions
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Hammertoes
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Arthritis
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Total ankle replacements
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Total toe replacements
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Neurologic deformities
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Diabetic feet
Dr. Shields sees patients from adolescence on up. She will see younger patients on a case by case basis.
Please contact Dr Shields to discuss.
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Affiliations
