Week 1 of immersion - June 5 to 10

 This was the first week of immersion. I felt nervous and excited to be in the city, which I will be moving to after immersion, and to meet the doctors. I have never done a rotation in my life and so I was nervous about my position as a rotation student.


This week I met Dr. Altorki and his team. My summer research project will be using patient samples previously collected by Dr. Altorki. Specifically, we will be using single cell RNASeq data and compare lung tumor types. I spoke with Dr. Altorki's research coordinator about her role and she had explained to me the many procedural steps behind a clinical trail or patient sample collection. It was extremely interesting to see the intersection between science and medicine and understanding the pipeline to retrieve those samples. This also gives me a better understanding of project feasibility for my future work as a Ph.D. student. One of the most challenges for someone working with AI in medicine in having enough data and good data. This can be one of the biggest hurdles to overcome and is time consuming. However, learning about the numerous steps that is required to get data from patients gives a better understanding on my limits when proposing a project in the future.


In addition, I shadowed Dr. Altorki and a senior clinical associate in cardiothoracic surgery, Dr. Goudie. One thing I found interesting was shadowing the rounds in the morning. It quickly became clear that deciding when to send a patient home was a big challenge, especially with each patient having their own goals of when to go back home. It was also interesting to see patients in surgery and then their recovery later. Often in surgery, samples were sent to pathology and the surgeons would have to wait until the results came back before continuing, and thus very depending on the turn around time in pathology. 


One project in my Ph.D. research applies AI on medical images. However, I had never experienced the use of medical images in surgery. The doctors used patient images to determine where to make incisions. In addition, they are used to differentiate non-solid vs solid tumors and determine whether the patient requires surgery. 


In addition to shadowing one of the best moments happened after shadowing when I was leaving the hospital. I was extremely exhausted after standing all day. When I was leaving 1300 York Ave and pass through the revolving doors, there was a lady who was using a wheelchair as a walking stick standing in front of the revolving doors. She seemed concerned and unsure how to proceed. I asked her if she wanted help, I could push her in her wheelchair or hold her stuff. In the end she asked me to push her and I took her through the accessible doors and brought her to her car.  She was extremely grateful, she had called a few people to arrange her pick up and had mentioned me pushing her a few times.

I did not realize the impact it would have on her when I asked to help, I just thought it would make her day a little easier. I did not realize that I could do something so small and it would have such a big impact on her. The technology I create will hopefully have the same impact on future patients.


Everyone on the team has been extremely generous for their time this past week and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity. In addition, I am very thankful for the radiology team who is helping us coordinate our stay. 

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