Summary: This past week consisted of clinical work with Dr. Nanus as well as shadowing Dr. Jim Hu as he performed targeted biopsies.
As usual, the week began with a hectic Monday in the clinic where doctors and nurses worked to take care of patients and catch up on schedule. This week, however, I was also introduced to the world of patient consent and clinical trials. Many patients were either unresponsive to treatments or were eligible for clinical trials and I observed as the doctors explained the trials and gathered their consent for enrollment. The process of signing up patients for clinical trials seemed a lot more simpler than I'd imagined as it consisted of a signature (and some preliminary blood work). Overall, it was very informative seeing the kind of concerns patients had with signing up with trials as well as how they were informed of the process and the specific drugs involved.
Outside of the clinic, I also shadowed Dr. Hu as he performed targeted biopsies of the prostate with the assistance from robots. Dr. Nanus had put me in contact with him and Dr. Hu had agreed to let me shadow. I was quite intrigued by the how well the robotics program was able to match up images from the patients MRI with live images received from ultrasound. I was also impressed by how quickly Dr. Hu was able to take 12 biopsy samples in less than 10 minutes with the program directing the locations of interest. I never would have imagined that collecting over 10 biopsy samples would be done so quickly. On the other hand, it was also a lot more bloody than I would have guessed. I felt a lot more squeamish simply because the patient was awake and aware throughout the process.
Overall, this week was another insightful week into the clinic life. Hopefully, next week involves some more new adventures in and out of the hospital.
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