Week 1: Fai

Until now I have been in NYC for one week. I gained lots of experiences here, especially clinical experiences which must be one of the most valuable experiences in my life. I would like to thank NIH and everyone who made the program happened.

First thing that I learned here in early of the first week are medical ethics. As common sense we all know that ethics are important for every career. The two ethics seminars here helped me realize even more how much important they are and learn what principles underlying medical ethics. Also, the seminars clarify me what exactly responsible conduct of research is.

My clinical mentor is Dr. William Frayer, an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Associate Attending Pediatrician at Weill Cornell Medical Center. His expertise is in the care and intensive care of newborn infants, with a special interest in pulmonary and nutrition issues. He thought, and I strongly agreed, that it would be a great opportunity for me to see several diagnoses and treatments in different units.

For the first week, I shadowed Dr. Schumann to round and see many newborn patients. There were around six or seven people in the team including Dr. Schemann, one or two fellow pediatricians, three nurses, and one clinical nutritionist. The nurses, who had responsibility for their own newborn patients, reported several clinical data to the team such as weight plus the change from yesterday, total volume and calories of feeding, amounts of significant electrolytes, complete blood count (CBC) results, and many other data based on case by case basis like x-ray, MRI, ultrasound, cell culture results, amount of used antibiotics. The pediatricians then jotted down the data and investigated whether all date are in normal or expected ranges or not. If not, they would discuss with each other to figure it out what was going on, why the number was so low, what was the best way to test their hypotheses and to treat the patients. In some cases there were many hypotheses coming up during the discussion. Each hypothesis had substantial reasons to support and it seemed hard to answer the question if based on medical knowledge alone. In these cases “Experience” seemed greatly helpful. For me, the way and process of thinking for solving the problems are not far different from what we have done in lab for research. We all use the same scientific method— consisting of the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses. Thanks to summer immersion, I have learned a lot how to apply the scientific method to solve new problems which I have never ever think about and definitely not found in the lab at Ithaca.

Reason, Observation, and Experience - the Holy Trinity of Science.

~ Robert G. Ingersoll