Week 1

The first week of the anticipated summer immersion term is over. Thanks to all that made the transition from Ithaca to New York city hitch-free (Dr. Yang,Belinda, Mitch, etc.) I remember reading the last email from my advisor before I left Ithaca "I hope it is useful." Based on the interactions I have had so far, I believe that it is the onus of each individual to maximize the opportunities presented through the summer immersion. After the orientation on day 1, we had a bio-ethics class. The ethics class was quite interesting, and I remember a few of us having debates later that evening on what the consequentialist theory entailed. Honestly, I expected a bioethics class to be a discussion of DON'Ts; however, it was more philosophical in approach, prompting a genuine interest in ethical issues involved in research/ medical care. Apparently, the CITI course had some overlap with the ethics course.

My mentor is Dr. Ashutosh Tewari, the Director of Robotic Prostatectomy and Prostate Cancer- Urologic Oncology Outcomes at Weill Cornell . Besides robotic surgery, His main research interests are in the field of prostate cancer, outcomes, molecular marker for cancer aggressiveness, and strategies to improve nerve sparing and sexual function recovery. On meeting Dr Tewari, I was also introduced to members of his research team, who interestingly utilize multiphoton imaging for tissue biopsy. We discussed my expectations for the summer immersion term, and the journey began.

I observed my first robotic prostatectomy on Wednesday. I changed into my scrubs and headed for the operating room, which had about 8 or 9 individuals present (I was curious to know each one's role.) The best analogy of my experience while viewing the surgery was the IMAX theater--a real-time 3D view. I talked with a nurse anesthetist monitoring the ECG of the patient amongst other vital signs, and I recall his claim that nurse anesthetist and anesthesilogist do the same thing. Dr. Tewari controlled the robotic arms of the da Vinci surgical systems from a console about 2 feet from the patient, and he was assisted by physician assistants ,who were by the patient in the traditional sense of surgery. I look forward to observing and learning more from the OR.

Outside the OR, I spend my time learning about the clinical presentation, diagnosis, and staging of prostate cancer. I joined the journal club in Dr. Tewari's group, where we discuss new articles on prostate cancer from different urology journals. With my project yet to be finalized, I look forward to week 2 of the immersion term (minus the flu).