Week 1: New York State of Mind

The first week of summer immersion has been incredibly insightful and I am excited to spend the next 7 weeks working with Dr. Kennedy at the Hospital for Special Surgery. I first met with Dr. Kennedy Monday and one of his summer medical student researchers presented the basic science of collagen. Each morning before we see patients in the clinic, one of the summer students will present on either a basic science topic, a medical procedure, or give a practice patient exam for one area of the body. It has been a refreshing change of pace to work with medical students and clinicians to learn how the technological advancements created by biomedical engineers are put into practice.

In the first week I have been able to get an HSS ID badge and get cleared to observe surgeries. Next week Dr. Kennedy has two days of surgeries planned, and I am excited to see firsthand how different cartilage repair procedures are performed. This past week I was able to shadow Dr. Kennedy in the clinic as he met with patients and diagnosed their cause of pain and recommended the best course of action. Both Dr. Kennedy and one of the physician assistants Chris used a foot model and patient MRI and CT scans to help explain each patient's ailment.

For my research project, I searched through the literature and am composing a database of patient information with another medical student. This will allow us to gain an understanding of current published evidence with clinical studies, and also the feasibility of different studies based on the amount of patient data available. This has allowed me to learn more about osteochondral lesions of the talus, and how MRI can be used in determining the best course of treatment and evaluating patient outcome.

Overall, I am very excited to be working with Dr. Kennedy and am looking forward to gaining more experience in the clinic.