Week 7 – Final Comments

Overall, I would say that I completed my objectives, and the program more than met my expectations. I learned a lot about the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, and I believe that this is knowledge that I will easily incorporate into my research. I successfully identified metastatic disease as the leading challenge to combating breast cancer today. And I believe that I did come away from the summer with a better grasp on medical vocabulary and interacting with clinicians, although this may be the most intangible of my learning experiences.

I successfully gained a well-rounded view of breast cancer, a comfort level with medical vocabulary that I had not possessed before, and a future clinically-related direction to take my research. Most importantly, I feel much more comfortable working with clinical collaborators. Above all else, I will take this knowledge with me in the future. Overall, I was very satisfied with how my expectations were met and my objectives accomplished.

While the immediate impact of summer immersion may not be readily apparent, I believe that this experience has significantly contributed to my career goal of becoming a biomedical engineer. Regardless of what sort of job I end up pursuing, the vocabulary and the perspective on clinical interactions will be of great use to me.

In the short term, I would say that my summer experience served to solidify my desire to pursue cancer research, in many shapes and forms. It helped to point out to me where the biggest need is for advancement – treatment of metastatic disease. Additionally, I feel more comfortable now reading clinical papers pertaining to this area of research. I believe that summer immersion made me a more competent and confident biomedical engineer.

I think that it is difficult to determine at this moment what the precise long term impact is of the summer immersion program on my life and career. Certainly, as I mentioned before, understanding a clinician’s perspective and priorities on a project will certainly be useful in the long term. I think that appreciation for the medical field is sure to stay with me for the rest of my life. I don’t think that people truly understand what a physician does, in terms of the hours and labor and heart that go into this job. Seeing it first hand, I am caught feeling the utmost respect for this profession, even though I know it could never be my own. I am excited to see how the immersion experience will affect and perhaps drive the course of my career. I am very thankful to everyone involved for making this summer a great success for myself and my colleagues.