January 2019

Fittingly,  the new year and semester brought on a bout of new classes to schedules. In addition to the usual Medical Pharmacology and Principles of Pharmacology classes, we are now taking Environmental Signaling, Endocrine Pharmacology, Cell Control Mechanisms, and Neuropharmacology. For the most part, these electives have given us more freedom to control how much we learn and what content we focus on. While the other electives still focus more on the human mechanisms, Environmental Signaling provides a good balance between physiological phenomena and environmental awareness. We have learned about the signaling pathways of estrogen in the body, the different forms of estrogen, and how they affect the body, but what I also appreciate is Dr. Mielke's attention to protecting New Orleans' population from lead pollution. We have been assigned a project to collect five soil samples from across the greater New Orleans area specifically from places where children spend a significant amount of time. Dr. Mielke's analysis on the concentration of lead in the soil could help to better treatment of the soil and future prevention of lead poisoning. Below I have attached a copy of the current soil lead concentrations around the city. Since Katrina there has been a descent in the lead concentration levels, and it is important to continue Dr. Mielke's research to further this progress and protect the youth of this city.

I have not yet been able to visit KiPP this semester, but I plan to continue volunteering around the school as much as I can. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

April 2019

Image
Finally, we are wrapping our year up with the last blog post! With MCAT preparations and job applications the past month has really flown by. In the next year, I hope to teach in underserved communities. I have always been so lucky to have a choice with my career path and my life because of my loving parents. Financial barriers can impede on a student's ability to actively learn, so I would like to create an environment that stimulates a desire to learn regardless of any other issues. I believe that places like KiPP and City Year would be a great starting point to help students in these underserved communities. I also enjoyed our Environmental Signaling elevator talks! It was a great way to learn what each of us are passionate about and work on our presenting skills. I appreciate everything that I have learned at Tulane during this Master's program, and I hope that I will continue to use and flourish this knowledge as I become a physician one day! April Service hours: 12
Read more

February 2019

This month brought about the final two blocks of the year for Medical Pharmacology and Principles of Pharmacology. Neurology and Psychiatry were the final two topics discussed before heading into the final NBME exam at the end of March. I particularly enjoyed the Psychiatry block because of the light it shed on mental disorders. As I learned about the positive and negative symptoms that people with depression, schizophrenia, and other disorders, I felt a sadness growing within me. Millions of people worldwide struggle to cope with these issues on a daily basis yet so much is still unknown about these diseases from their causes to a proper treatment protocol. And the little aid we have for patients incurs such drastic side effects that make life even more difficult for any and all affected. These patients suffering from psychiatric disabilities are left to choose between fighting with their disease every day or tolerating the brutal side effects that accompany any drugs given to them to
Read more

November 2018

Even with a week spent with my family in Nashville, TN, November still proved to be a heavy load from an academic perspective. We dove into the second half of the Cardiovascular (CV) block to begin the month and examined how to treat arrhythmias, benign prostatic hyperplasia, erectile dysfunction, and urinary tract infections. The antiarrhythmic overview was particular insightful as we tackled the topic in a problem based learning (PBL) exercise. By engaging each student in a discussion format, PBLs are effective at helping the students not only learn about how to handle arrhythmias but also gain an understanding of how their peers approach each case study. I believe this is an important skill to have as aspiring physicians because soon we will have to treat patients as a team, and its imperative to be able to combine multiple angles at a diagnosis to develop a personalized, appropriate treatment plan for each patient. Thanks to the generosity of Dr. Elma LeDoux, we also had the privil
Read more