Monday –July 16, 2018
Day 1 by Joseph Zhou and Yang Shu Chen
At ten o’clock in the morning, Dr. Le Yi introduced us to the ACMA Youth Internship Program. After a round of introductions, Dr. Tong Zhu went over the program overview and showed us the schedule for the upcoming week. He explained the objectives of the program along with its importance before diving in to his lecture about Cardiology.
Dr. Tong Zhu introduced us to the many kinds of career options available in medical school and emphasised how important it was to figure out what we wanted to do. Soon afterwards he began discussing his specific focus: Cardiology. He showed us the dangers of sudden cardiac death and many kinds of medical devices that prevent it. Dr. Zhu also covered the reasons why people should get involved into medicine, especially Cardiology. After that, he explained the process behind applying to medical school and detailed the life of a medical student is like.
After lunch, we met Dr. Young for an introduction into the world of radiology. As a neuroradiologist, he introduced us to his daily life. He explained how radiology is a constantly changing field and how he has to translate new inventions and ideas for other doctors to use. He showed us what he does in the hospital and how CT and MRI scans work. Dr. Young also explained the recent limits with radiology and how normal people could only tolerate the radiation for an hour, and how it costs a huge amount of money to complete a scan. He concluded that we should become doctors-not because our family encourages us, but because we truly care about our patients.
Dr. Lu Yi taught us about what it takes to be a neurosurgeon. He told us that surgeons need to be able to work in teams, be empathetic, stay calm, and make quick decisions. He explained his own personal experiences with working long hours and constantly being stressed about his patients. Dr. Lu Yi’s emotional video of a young man regaining his ability to walk brings out the true importance of becoming a neurosurgeon. Afterwards, Dr. BIll Lian lectured about the importance of healthcare within our society. He taught us about different life expectancies and health care spendings around the world and explained how the United States benefited from large health care spending.
At the end of the day, Dr. Le Yi took us around some Harvard affiliated hospitals and showed us the medical library, the blood donor storage,the calming botanical garden, and many other places. We ended the day at five o’clock in the Jimmy Fund History room.
Tuesday –July 17, 2018
Day 2 by Allyson Lu
In light of the modern admiration for doctors–people who seem infinitely more heroic (and thus intelligent) than anyone else–there is no shortage of young people interested in entering the medical field. However, many of these “desires” are mere whims: few people know what it is like to be a physician and even less so, how to become one.
The purpose of ACMA Medicine and Future is to guide students through discovering these answers, if they were unclear before.
With this in mind, I would like to document my own findings for the second day of the program:
As no one in my family has medical experience (except for my grandmother in China), I was at a severe disadvantage compared to my peers who had such resources at hand: they could ask their siblings for help with their medical school applications and contact connections for summer research opportunities.
Luckily, at ACMA, I was saved on the former front; Dr. Wei Wang spoke specifically about the application process, sharing his insights about premed programs (and the corresponding coursework), the MCAT, and medical school applications. Apparently the MCAT is 8 hours long!
After understanding the difficulties of becoming and being a premed student (maintaining a high GPA in notoriously difficult classes such as organic chemistry, working in a research lab and volunteering at hospitals in the summer, and studying for the MCAT), I was cleared of my previous misconceptions and ready for the next speaker.
As a natural follow-up to Dr. Wang’s speech, Lili Wang, our intern, spoke about her medical school application process. While many of its features were similar to those of the college common app application, the main difference was in the “Experiences” section: high school students are not expected to have 7-8 impressive activities, Lili had conducted intensive research with that many professors and physicians!
The other speakers were more career-related: Dr. Alan Jiang explained the process of creating a new drug (not a substance!); Dr. Jian Ni introduced the opportunities in pharmacy (especially those related to oncology); Dr. Jiahua Li spoke about his personal experience in medicine, science, education, and entrepreneurship; and Dr. Shuanhu Zhou introduced us to the remarkable applications of stem cells and stem cell research.
As for the last topic, I was particularly surprised to learn that stem cells could not only repair tissues but create fully functional organs!
The day concluded with a discussion centered around the topic: “What is Medicine?” I, myself, have only scraped the surface with my answer, but I entreat you, whoever is reading this, to ponder this question for yourself.
Wednesday–July 18, 2018
Day 3: Experiences in Interviewing Doctors by Henry Karshis Jr.
Perhaps one of my favorite lectures from today’s lesson could be summarized with how there should always be an emphasis on the significance of life and the permanence of death for there is a fine line between the two in which it appears only Medicine can gracefully weave itself around. Today’s lessons touched upon warnings for pre-med, organization, and time management; lessons that I believe I never truly learned until I had to re-learn to manage it in my recovery process back in September-October 2017. How much can be learned and achieved in life, but little of it can be accomplished without a will.
Back in September of 2017, I was hit by a jeep that threw me against the pavement’s curb, shattering my skull and breaking my arm whilst potentially paralyzing me if I were to survive. I can’t stress how I was so lucky in several points of my experience following, including transport to the hospital, to how I was accidentally admitted as a grown adult, to how my 95% chance of quick death was avoided with several surgerys. I should not be here, even though I am I should be severely paralyzed yet, I am not. And for as long as I do get to be here I want to become the most I can be, the best I can be. A quote said by several medical professionals today would be “to follow what you want” and I can now firmly state that I know my own meaning of life now and that I am ready to work to reach for it.
The lectures throughout the week have been marvelous and it really is great hearing such thoughts and comments directly whilst touring facilities. Thank you.
Thursday –July 19, 2018
Day 4 by Marlyn Li
At 9, we met at the UMass Medical School to begin the most interactive day of the week. When we arrived, we were greeted by Dr. Xiaoduo Fan. Afterwards, we were given talks by three college interns (Matthew, Mona, and Sindhu) regarding new forms of treatment for mental disorders, particularly schizophrenia.
Mark Liu, an incoming medical student, then briefly discussed his work on the Community Health Initiative Project (CHIP) before sharing his experience applying to medical school and endowing college and career advice upon us.
We then went on to meet with Dr. Lan Qin, a neurology attending at UMass. She discussed her daily schedule and exactly what a neurologist does. She taught us about strokes, a major cause of death in the U.S., and the acronym FAST (Face, Arms, Speech, Time) in order to recognize when someone is suffering from a stroke. As a conclusion to her fascinating talk, we were ushered into a room where we observed EEG (electroencephalogram) of a pediatric patient as Dr. Qin gave us a brief overview of how to read it.
The last few hours involved the most interactive activities yet. Dr. Frank Yuan, the chief resident of the surgical program at UMass, gave us an incredibly interesting tour of the hospital. We explored the trauma rooms and were familiarized with some of the equipment that doctors use on a regular basis. After being granted permission, we were able to enter the helicopter dispatch office and stand just inches away from a multi-million dollar medevac.
We then made our way to the highly anticipated surgery simulator. Dr. Yuan showed us a mannequin used by surgical residents and medical students to practice skills on before proceeding to the surgery simulation lab. We were given the extremely unique opportunity to practice using laparoscopic surgery tools in a variety of tasks such as cutting out a circle, moving cylinders from rod to rod, and suturing pieces of foam. Although it seems easy to perform such mundane tasks, we were all surprised by the level of skill it took to complete them efficiently. Afterwards, we moved on to the surgical robot and got to try out the advanced equipment.
Then, Sumedha Mitra, a Johns Hopkins student, eased our concerns regarding college and shared her college application experience with us. She talked about everything from ways to cope with workloads and how to write unique essays for college applications.
For the final event of the day, we were given a tour of a research lab by Amy Cheung, an MD/PhD student at UMass, where we looked at mice brains and complicated setups used to look at brain activity.
Friday–July 20, 2018
Day 5 by Isabelle Xu and Janelle Li
Our last day at camp began with our fourth field experience of the week, a tour of Mass General Hospital. Sarah, the director of the Russell Museum, led us to the renowned Ether Dome where she proceeded to delve into the fascinating history of MGH. As the third oldest hospital in the United States, we learned that MGH has been revolutionary since its establishment in 1811, from its pledge far ahead of its time that “when in distress, every man becomes our neighbor” to, among other achievements, its groundbreaking advancements in the field of surgery. In fact, the very room in which we were sitting was the site of a surgery in 1846 that would forever change the course of medicine: the first demonstration of ether as anesthesiology on a patient. In addition, Sarah introduced us to Padihershef, the first mummy the United States had ever been exposed to and MGH’s unofficial mascot because he helped earn much of the funding needed to establish the hospital.
After our tour, we were given a chance to explore the Russell Museum, which displayed many medical tools used throughout history, explained some of the innovative advancements MGH was responsible for, and included a movie and rooftop garden as well. Then, we shuttled back to the Tosteson Medical Education Center for lunch, closing remarks, cake, and certificates.
