Week 3 - Sung Ji

This week I shadowed different parts of clinical medicine. I was able to shadow emergency room part C from 3:30p to 11:30p (afternoon shift). The shift began with bedside rounding, consisting of finishing-shift and starting-shift residents. A good introduction of who these patients are, why they are here, status of treatment, prognosis, and what further needs to be done on each patients were given and was very helpful. After the rounding, I shadowed senior resident talking to patients at the bedside and typing treatment procedures on electronic charts. Each patient had different problems ranging from shoulder dislocation, asthma, drug addict, hernia, abdomen pain, faint, seizer, and severe abrupt symptom from primary disease. A wide-range of diagnostic tests was performed, and initial treatments were given. Some patients were discharged from ER, and others were admitted to the other departments. ER seemed very busy, but in general doctors spent most of their time on computer to request test, diagnose and write down chart. I thought ER would be more efficient with better electronic charts and patient managing software. I was also able to shadow pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) round in the morning. Fellows and residents rounded bedsides of PICU. Although symptoms of patients varied just like ER, all the patients were severely ill and needed intensive care. One very impressive case was 3-year-old boy suffering from liver and lung failure due to host response from bone marrow transplant. I also went to the operating room and saw a device implant surgery at spine for a clinical trial. A newly developed device was implanted right next to spinal cord through a hole made on the spinal bone. The patient were initially in the deep sleep mode during the surgery, but had to be waken up just to confirm that the device is stimulating right part of the spinal cord. Burn+dissection tools and auto-focusing surgical microscopes were interesting.

This week, I also shadowed Dr. Panullo’s clinic, had a meeting on the research, and went to tumor board and seminars. On Monday, the brain and mind research institute hosted a seminar called “The neural circuits underlying tactile sensation”. It was about scientific research on mouse sensation on a cortical map. Whisker stimulation was used to control degree and frequency of sensation, and the response was recorded for studying brain plasticity. It was very interesting to see the sensation being quantified. Throughout this past three week, I am surprised by extensive basic science seminars held in this hospital and people’s avid interest on research.