Week 1 - Tara

I apologize for the delay in posting this since I just received access to the blog. With that being said, this week has been an interesting experience from many different angles. On the one hand, settling into the pace of Weill Cornell is surprisingly (or unsurprisingly, depending on your perspective) different than that of Cornell Ithaca. Due to the clinical nature of Weill, your day can start as early as 7AM by watching surgeries, attending grand rounds, following your mentor during clinical rounds, etc. My experience has been as follows:

My clinical mentor is Dr. Susan Gauthier in the Neurology department. Her expertise is primarily in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). She sees patients Wednesdays and Fridays and conducts research related to computational analysis of MRI images for the prediction of MS progression and onset of more severe symptoms. I was able to shadow her during her patient visits and the take-home message is that although every patient shares the disease title of "MS", each case and person is unique. Dr. Gauthier typically does a follow-up visit with each of her patients every 6 months to track the progression of the disease as well as how the patient is feeling mentally, emotionally, and physically with the prescribed treatment plan. As of now, there is no current treatment that addresses symptoms of MS in the early phases, which typically includes numbness, tingling, poor balance and loss of connectivity to the limbs and lower extremities. Any medication is intended to address and perhaps delay the later, degenerative phase of the disease. I could not help but feel saddened to see so many patients in which the severity of the disease is increasing and to see the expression of first-time patients as they receive the official MS diagnosis. However, it is is clear that there is a hopeful aspect since clinical trials and research are striving to improve the MS prognosis. Additionally, I was able to see firsthand how academic physicians, such as Dr. Gauthier, are also making strides to improve the diagnostic quality of MS in its early phases. For this reason, imaging, especially with respect to complex algorithms for studying MRI images are absolutely essential to study MS lesions.

During this week, I was also able to attend two lab meetings with Dr. Gauthier's computational team as they discussed their results of various computational MRI analyses. It was interesting to see that having a strong foundation in physics, optics, and MRI can prove invaluable in many clinical research settings where imaging is the best, if not only, option to track a particular pathology. On a larger scale, I attended the neurology grand rounds lecture, which also proved to be a unique experience where so many elite scienfitic minds congregate to discuss a particular case.

Finally, I observed a neurosurgery for the removal of a schwannoma situated just above a patient's left ear. The attending surgeon was Dr. Schwartz and in the OR, there was a team of 6-8 people at any given time performing various essential tasks. It was my first experience in an OR setting, and it was very interesting to observe the dynamics and interplay of the surgical team, from the main neurosurgeon resident, the anesthesiologists, the nurses, and the attending surgeon. From an engineering perspective, I could not help but admire the surgeons for their ability to adapt their surgical plan for every patient, sometimes instantly. Due to the precise location, nature, and structure of the tumor and its neighbors, various clever strategies must be emloyed to resect the tumor with minimal damage to the surrounding environment. And on top of that, every one must be alert and on their feet for a full 12 hours! The array of tools, imaging equipment and precision of the surgeons is impossible to describe...all I can say is that you have to see it firsthand.

All said and done, this first week has been remarkable and left indelible impressions on me. From the patients to the physicians to the surgeons, the medical community is certainly something a biomedical engineer must experience to gain perspective about their future contributions.