Week1: People are sick every day of the week, not just Mon-Thurs.

I spent my first week in New York city shadowing Dr. John Richard Lee, Attending physician in the nephrology department. I had the chance to attend rounds, clinic hours and participate in meetings. Coming from an engineering background, it was difficult to keep up with all the different medical terms, but it was clear that a physician’s main priorities are patient health and comfort. In basic science research, it will be important to keep that in mind and frame my projects with the main goal of improving human health.

The main logistical problem I noticed was the availability of resources. For example, a biopsy cannot be performed during the weekend, and if a doctor suspects an issue on Friday, they might need to wait until the following Monday to have it processed, then wait another day to see the results. It was frustrating knowing that helpful resources existed but could not be used, especially since people are sick every day of the week, not just Monday to Thursday.

However, the most enriching experience of the week was following the same patient through different stages of renal treatment. As with all patients, their case was discussed with Dr. Suthanthiran, Chief of the nephrology department, and a decision was made to biopsy the patient and send the samples to the pathology department to rule evaluate rejection status. It was interesting to observe each step of the patient’s healing process and watch different departments collaborate together to ensure positive patient outcome.

Cornell's nephrology and transplantation department is one of the best in the nation, and I'm extremely thankful to have spent time here. I will return to their service in July, but I will be spending next week with Dr. Van Besien's group in the bone marrow transplant service and I have to admit, I am very nervous to be working in a ward where the patients are very sick. 

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