The need for technical innovation in medicine

It should go without saying that for me medicine is not a path of least resistance … it’s a calling, and I consider myself very fortunate to have the opportunity to combine my engineering with medicine. There are some issues in medicine that are perhaps mostly a matter of physician head count (rural medicine, HIV/AIDS corps in Africa). At the same time, I’m convinced that if we want to maintain or improve on the average medical care we provide in the U.S., we need physicians who are interested in innovative applications of technology to medical care and can do so with cost in mind. We don’t just need more widgets in medicine (although they are cool).

I’m convinced that engineers have provided society and even medicine with sophisticated, relatively inexpensive engineered products such as new computers that do more and cost the same or less than the year before as well as increasing availability and improving capabilities of laptop-sized sonogram equipment. With the demographic shift toward and older population and concerns about the cost of medical care in the U.S. in the future, medicine seems to be facing very challenging problems that impact many people. These appear to be issues where someone with my background of engineering, business, and technology might be able to help with some innovative improvements.

As I get into medicine, I will be looking for opportunities to perhaps innovate in the use of technology to improve safety for patients and maybe push the envelope on what we can do for patients though proper use of technology. Maybe computerized systems can do more to help catch and prevent medication and surgical issues that lead to complications. Maybe in the future robotic surgery equipment can remove tumors that would be inoperable today. Perhaps a patient’s genetic information can play a very helpful role in anticipating disease or selecting treatments. I can see the potential for innovation like this already and look forward to being a part of innovative patient care in the future.

Visit to the outside world

Med school and family stuff have been keeping me fairly busy. It feels great to be done with the first "block" of material and well into the second. Studying is becoming more routine, although I certainly could always study more. My family has adjusted to my new workload as well. I'm picking up some additional research work that I can work into my schedule. I think it's important to do research to be exposed to cutting edge work and perhaps even contribute to the advancement of science and medicine. I like the people in med school (students, profs, etc.) more than I though I would ... they're smart and fun to hang out with. Well, I need to get back to my many tasks.

As an aside: Internet service: We depend on it these days (especially med students). I tried AT&T Uverse and thought it would be pretty nice. Sadly, it has been totally unreliable for me. Every month (for about 4 months or so) there way some kind of major failure, usually requiring a replacement of the residential gateway. I'm finally switching back to AT&T DSL because the situation has become intolerable. I'm going with DSL instead of Comcast Cable (which I actually also have as a backup) because it turns out that Comcast throttles their download speeds. If you download a large file (document from school), Comcast will intentionally make the download speed slow to keep their system running well; that's not nice. DSL is much faster as a result.

Two weeks done

I'm two weeks into medical school, and I'm glad that I had a chance to consider what it would be like. Because I knew what to expect (a lot of material, much detail, and a lot of talented fellow students) the long hours pass much more quickly. It's a lot of reading (our school uses textbooks and many other resources, including lectures, of course). Just keeping up with the material and memorization is timeconsuming. On the plus side, I believe I'm learning as much as possible and thus far, I'm finding the experience energizing. Some of the students have had much of this material and are having a great time. Others, like me, that aren't recent graduates with a Biology or Biochemistry degree are finding ourselves memorizing a lot of anatomy and other material.

Anticipation

One thing about starting medical school is the anticipation of the experience. You hear a lot about it, with impressions ranging from miserable to unbelievably good. I don't get the impression that people are evenly distributed across the spectrum of impressions. It seems like you hear mostly from people who are miserable and from a few people who are happy. It seems like many students do enjoy Baylor College of Medicine, which is one of the reasons I chose this school. The curriculum seems to allow for taking electives and that are interesting to the student, so that might have something to do with it. Going into this, you are left wondering where you will fall as an individual. I think one advantage I have is that I've learned to enjoy pretty much any experience because I put a lot of effort into not letting circumstances get to me. When it comes to medicine, although I enjoy the subject matter, I also think about the fact that I'm going there to learn as much as I can so that I can be an effective physician. I also want to be an encouragement and help to fellow students and perhaps even be a benefit to a patient or two. I'm expecting a lot of hard work, sleep deprivation, and an opportunity to learn a lot of medical-related information (even if much of it is trivia). Since I enjoy school and learning, I'm expecting to enjoy the experience as much as one can enjoy something while working very hard at it.

Another dimension for me is going into this experience with a family. I need to consider the lives of my wife and children, not just my own needs. My family already understands that my availability to them will be limited. Whether this is actually a practical approach remains to be seen, of course. For example, I wonder if my lack of time with my children due to medical school requirements will have a negative impact on their upbringing and later lives. I'm not sure I have figured that part out entirely. I do know that I have a wife who is very supportive on this and does a lot to make sure the children have wonderful learning and growing experiences throughout the week. Not only does a family require time, but it also requires money to cover the necessities. I have some money saved from my previous career and my wife works. Overall, it's still challenging to meet all the needs, but I think I have a workable plan.

Finally, right now I'm trying to get everything done that I want to complete as I expect that medical school will consume my time as I adjust to my new environment.

Med school only a few weeks away ....

Now with medical school only a few weeks away it's neat to look back and forward. It took a fair amount of work to get into medical school, but this is nothing compared to what is about to happen. The MS1s before me are recovering from their first year and seem very happy to be done. Going into this I thought I would be interested in doing research while I go to medical school. Now I'm not so sure. My area of research (systems biology) seems to have a minimal presence at the school I'm attending. Most of the work is elsewhere, such as Vanderbilt. In speaking with some of the PI's I'm not sure that there is a research project that makes sense that I will actually have much time to devote to. That's a big part of the problem. Med school takes up so much time and anything you do, like research, might prolong the process. I'll keep my eyes open to opportunities. In the meantime, I'll work on finishing some things up before med school ... such as a couple of Spanish courses I am taking and some post-doc research that I started.

Not really a med student yet.

I'm not actually a medical student yet. The fun is supposed to start July 23rd. However, I'll post my thoughts here as I go along. Right now it sounds like medical school is going to be a lot of work, but something that I will enjoy. Time will certainly tell.

I know I'm probably going to be pretty busy. I feel like I've said my last goodbyes to all my friends, like I'm going on a long journey. First and second year shouldn't be too bad, however (at least compared to 3rd year anyway).