Week 1 - Sung Ji

Summer immersion has been exciting so far. I am paired with Dr. Pannullo in the Department of Neurological Surgery at NYPH. In the first week, I was able to attend an IRB (Institutional Review Board) meeting. In the IRB meeting board committees reviewed various clinical researches. Mostly, the studies were phase 1,2,3 trials about testing the efficacy of the drugs, new equipment, methods of various treatment regimes. Mainly the discussions were about blind control of the study candidates, the contents of informed consent and whether insurance or research funding can cover those clinical studies. The committee went through list of clinical trials and decided to defer or approve. During 5 hours of IRB meeting, I was able to get some scope on clinical research.

With Dr. Pua in the interventional radiology department, I shadowed some biopsies and surgeries. I was very fortunate to attend a class with third year medical students about interventional radiology before I get to shadow the real procedure, since Dr. Pua had to give lecture in the morning I went.  It was very interesting to see liver biopsy done with a needle under a CT scan. In order to confirm a biopsied tissue, histologists came and examined the tissue under the bright field microscope in the surgery room right next to the patient. Surgery in the interventional radiology department was very interesting. A guide catheter was placed to find the exact location and catheters with different size and shape was placed to perform certain tasks such as application of drug, blow a balloon to stanch, adhere, change direction, and so on. A real-time x-ray scan was done to monitor where catheter was placed. I was very surprised to see how the advances of those devices enable doctors to simplify the procedure and minimize the damage of the surrounding tissue. One thing I noticed that needs amendment was moving the table where patients were lying on, since the x-ray scanners were fixed at one position. In most cases, patient doesn’t receive general anesthesia, and thus it would be a pain for them to lye on the moving bed for 5~10 hours.

I was able to shadow some of Dr. Pannullo’s clinic. Patients were mostly diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Since Dr. Pannullo use irradiation therapy to get rid of brain tumor instead of open head surgery, most of her patients have small tumor and are eligible for irradiation therapy (tumor that had diameter greater than 3cm cannot receive irradiation therapy because of their high dose). Although I could only see patients in the clinic, I hope I get to see brain surgeries in the following weeks.