Week 8

It's hard to believe that this was the last week of the immersion term.  This week I was again able to spend time in the OR, clinic, and working on research.  The highlight of this week for me was the last surgery I saw.  This was a particularly interesting hip revision surgery for an implant which was both infected and loose.  This surgery was definitely on of the more complex ones I have seen and contained a lot of interesting techniques including an osteotomy.  The original implant was removed and replaced with a temporary spacer cemented in with antibiotic containing cement.  After about 3 months this spacer will be removed and replaced with a permanent implant.  This surgery was a clinical example of a lot of the research I have been exposed to throughout the immersion term.  Dr. Bostrom's lab is currently doing a lot of work looking into implant infection in a mouse model to both better understand it and improve treatment of infected implants.  To see an infected implant revision in a patient really helped me to better understand the motivation for this research and appreciate its clear clinical relevance.  I think this particular experience kind of encapsulates this immersion experience for me in a nutshell.  Going into the OR and clinic to see patients who are in pain and struggling due to the disease we are studying provides powerful motivation for our research in Ithaca to improve our understanding and treatments for OA.  Seeing the clinical side of things also allows you to more clearly see where important holes in our understanding of the disease progression occur and where currently treatment methods fall short and could be improved upon.

Overall, this has been a great experience!  I was so impressed with the hard work and dedication of all of the doctors, PAs, nurses, research staff, and everyone else at HSS.  Everyone was so helpful and welcoming to me. Dr. Bostrom was a wonderful mentor and I am very grateful to him for making this such a wonderful experience for me.  I learned a lot from him and had a great experience shadowing him over the past 8 weeks.  It was also fun to live in NYC for a while and I tried to take advantage by exploring the city, culture, and museums.  While it was definitely interesting to see the clinical side of things but I think I am now ready to get back to a research focus in Ithaca.