The rats in the epilepsy lab with electrodes on their heads
This week I had the opportunity to learn through shadowing many different people who work in different fields within the hospital. On Wednesday, I visited an epilepsy lab where I saw the rats that they are testing on. The rats had electrodes that are wired into the temporal lobe, and the doctors would examine when rats had seizures then use data collected by the electrodes to read their brain waves.
On Thursday and Friday, I was able to shadow Drs. Akin and Zain in nuclear medicine where I learned a lot about how to read different types of scans. We had the chance to view the scans of multiple patients and to check the various scans to make sure the patients were well. There were some occasions where unfortunately we learned that a patient’s illness was worsened. On Thursday we checked the scan of a man with cancer to learn that his cancer had spread to his bones and was thus untreatable.
The conference in the hospital about using genomes for clinical work
On the mornings of Wednesday and Thursday, I shadowed Dr. Dodds in the clinic. Dr Dodds taught me a lot about clinician work, and, through her excellence in being personable with all of her patients, taught me about the importance of patient trust in the clinic; when the patient trusts the doctor, they feel more willing to tell the doctor the truth about their situation and what is keeping them from pristine health. On Thursday, I was able to attend a conference in the hospital on the use of genomes for clinical diagnostics. In the conference, the difficulties of using genomes were discussed while also recognizing the benefits they can provide in patient treatment and prevention. The difficulties of the use of genomes lie widely in storage and ethics.
On Monday, Tuesday, and Friday I worked with the Rodham institute in conference calls about future projects, and learning about the grants necessary to fund these projects. One of the projects that the Rodham Institute has been discussing works on tackling the issue of mental health in impoverished areas. This project has been particularly intriguing to me due to how everyone at the Rodham Institute has been making the people in wards seven and eight such a priority. I very much respect how the Rodham Institute makes their projects with real people in mind, aiming to make everything accessible to people in the communities.
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