BWH Clinical Innovation Day Event!

Ah I know I have been sadly neglectful but I'm taking time from my stupidly busy schedule to write about a fantastic event I was lucky enough to be a part of yesterday so I hope this will serve as my apology.

Brigham & Women's Hospital put on an Clinical Innovations Day yesterday which consisted of an afternoon of panel discussions and a poster session. The poster session was really the highlight because my PI and I submitted an abstract for a poster and it was accepted! Since I was the one who really pushed for us to submit in the first place, I was graced with the responsibility for sending everything in and then revising and getting our poster printed (which turned out to be a lot more time-consuming than I had expected). I'll post a little summary and graphic of our finished product tomorrow because I don't have as much time as I want now to go into the gory details).

At the event I was able to attend all of the afternoon talks which focused on innovation and were all extremely exciting. Some highlights included connected health ideas such as using devices and IT innovation to improve patient care, a talk on support for high-risk pregnant women, a genetics mapping program that provided mutational profiling for every BWH cancer patient, and a recently developed app for the Longitudinal Medical Record at Brigham that allows doctors to add pictures to patient health records.

There was also a panel titled "The Innovator's Journey" that I felt was able to dole out some wisdom that could be applied to many endeavors, including getting into medical school. The panel consisted of four doctors who had made considerable contributions to the clinical field and each stood for a few minutes to discuss how they had gotten to their final product. It was enlightening to see that for many of them, the road to success was a rocky one. Dr. Orgill, who had worked on developing a breakthrough synthetic skin replacement for use by plastic surgeons was very frank when he explained that, had he known how long and how difficult it would be to get to where he was today, he would have given up long ago. He went on to say that maybe that is the saving grace of focusing on the now. If you only concentrate on one thing at a time, you don't get overwhelmed by the big picture. He argued that doing things logically wasn't an option because when you look at a difficult goal overall you see how crazy it is. I think this struck a chord with me because this is the attitude I try to have about becoming a doctor. The idea is kind of far-fetched, there are lots of deterrents and if I looked at it with a calculating eye then my chances are low. But the point is that you can't think like that, you have to take everything one step at a time, take disappointments or triumphs as they come and forge ahead.

Overall the day was a great learning experience for me, I got to present my first poster (I stood in for my PI which was a lot of responsibility but I think it came off well) and I was able to meet some very interesting new people and discuss my work which I always love to do. During the talks these words resonated with me: "we all became physicians to make a difference...doing research has an impact on a great number of patients' lives." At the end of the day I think it helped me to remember why I'm doing the kind of work I do, why I enjoy being involved in the medical research field and what I'm working towards.

Nerd Love for Today's Google Doodle

Today the Google Doodle is in honor of Julius Richard Petri and it's so cute (come on, spelling google by streaking an agar plate?? To a science nerd that's pretty adorable)! A friend told me to check it out and it made me happy that petri dishes made her think of me :) Also kind of made me miss working with my fungi and bacteria plates (kind of, can't quite work myself up to missing the smell). Anyway, take a look at Petri's wiki page and edumacate yourself if you are like me and don't really know too much about him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Richard_Petri

ALSO HAPPY FRIDAY! I don't know about you but I am pretty excited for the awesome weather we're supposed to have this weekend. I need to get some beach time in before I shut myself up in my room to finish my application essays.

AMCAS For Applicants: Welcome To Your Life For The Next 7 Months

I know I know, I haven't written a post in 47 million years. It's been so incredibly blissful to be done with the MCAT and my Physics class that I have completely neglected my poor blog in favor of catching up on Game of Thrones and taking excessively long naps. To be fair (to myself) I didn't really have a whole lot to say after hell week and needed the down time to rest my poor brain.
Unfortunately vacation can't last forever and I've been slowly gathering all needed materials to get ready to submit my AMCAS app next month (aka three weeks from now). If you don't know, AMCAS stands for American Medical College Application Service and anyone who wants to apply to medical school in the US has to go through them. The main application requires a thorough explanation of pretty much anything a med school admissions committee would ever want to know about an applicant.
So far I've been working on the letters of recommendation and the transcripts portion of the application because those are the two most time sensitive since they rely on someone else to send in official documents for me.
As I struggle to navigate my way through this hefty application I'm beginning to realize that this whole process is actually pretty difficult. I used the common app to apply for undergrad and thought that AMCAS would be similar but it isn't. There are very specific ways you need to enter information (like all of the classes on your transcript) and there are sometimes several confusing choices regarding sending in documents like recommendation letters (do I use the letter packet option or the individual letter?). If you enter something wrong, it can be difficult and time-consuming to fix and the explanation videos (which are a cool feature) aren't always that enlightening. It doesn't help that all the FAQ material is clearly written by a catastrophist who incessantly warns that a mistake in your application could lead to being barred from applying (which is terrifying and led to an unfortunate dream about getting pulled over and having a traffic violation which precluded me from going to medical school. Extremely upsetting).
Luckily, there are many helpful resources you can use to work your way through and make sure you're doing it right. Number one (at least for me) has been friends that have already applied/are currently in medical school. They've been through this whole rigmarole before and I've found are more than happy to help navigate. The second source I've come to really appreciate is my program director at Harvard Extension. I've sent countless emails asking what I'm sure are annoying/redundant/inane questions and he's been very prompt and helpful in his responses. This is probably a good time to give the Health Careers Program props for being so supportive of their students, the aid is greatly appreciated! Finally, the AMCAS website does offer a comprehensive help section and they have an entire instruction manual (which yes, I did read through!) with details on how to fill out the application.
Today I am sending off my transcript and rec letter requests and next week I'll be working through the extracurriculars/work experience/what have you done with your life since high school section (max 15 essays which is A LOT!). I am actually a bit more excited about this part because I do really love writing and this will be my opportunity to highlight a lot of the meaningful experiences that I've had either leading up to or as a result of my decision to apply to medical school. I know a lot of activities I will be including won't necessarily be ones you would expect to find on a medical school application - I've never been a part of a pre-med society, I didn't major in biology - but I think that maybe that will help me stand out. There's nothing wrong with any of the aforementioned things and that will probably be what gets many students into medical school but I'm excited to be applying as a non traditional student and hope that whoever reads my application will be able to appreciate my atypical background.
I also hope that one day I'll be be in a position to do the same. I would love to sit on an admissions committee and look for the students that I can identify with - ones that don't necessarily have a perfect GPA, who didn't know immediately that they wanted to be a doctor, who maybe seem a little too old or not impressive enough at first glance but who have a lot of other qualities that show their dedication and passion, who maybe just need to be given a chance because sometimes (not always) those are the ones who want it the most and are willing to try the hardest. Struggle is the fire that refines and, from what I've seen in my friends, parents, and everyone else I admire, struggling to get to where you want to be is what makes you appreciate it more; it's what makes you great.

DONE WITH PHYSICS!!!

At least until Saturday, that is! I feel so wonderfully relieved to have my physics final out of the way that it's actually making me less stressed out about the MCAT in two days. And surprisingly, the exam didn't go so terribly. I'm notoriously bad at physics, it takes me a long time to understand the concepts and when I do I struggle with applying them to problems, so I was pretty worried about how it would go last night. Luckily I had some great friends help me study and I felt much more prepared for this test than usual and for once I walked out of the Harvard Science Center feeling like I had maybe actually done OK on a final. Maybe didn't ace it, but don't think I totally bombed it either. I don't get my overall grade for the class back until the 29th but I'm hoping it will be a good one (that way I can go out with a bang, since physics was officially my last pre-med class!). End result is that I am in a fantastic mood and the good weather is only helping. Hope you are all enjoying this beautiful day!

pretty much sums up my mood for the day!

Yay Science! I'm Officially a First-Time Published Author!

I didn't even realize but COINCIDENTALLY today is the day the paper got published online!!! You can't view the whole thing unless you have an account but you can read the abstract and see my name looking all official-like underneath the title :)
I AM LITERALLY SO EXCITED I MIGHT BURST!!

I Got an Email from SCIENCE!

Some of you may have seen my initial post that I had to take down due to the paper not being officially accepted and issues with copyright etc. BUT NOW I’M FINALLY ALLOWED TO TELL THE WHOLE WORLD!!! I’m getting my first paper published in Science!

One of the most rewarding things about working in research is getting your name on a publication. It's extremely gratifying to know all your hard work is actually contributing to something concrete that you can be proud of and share with others and just generally show off to the world a bit.
The summer after I started my post-bac I was hired as a research assistant for the Hansel lab at Harvard University following an interview with Julia, a new post-doc who had just started with the lab. I owe so much to her for looking past the fact that I had no background in research and had never worked in a lab before. I remember earnestly telling her that what I lacked in experience I more than made up for in effort and perseverance. I love learning and was more than willing to start from scratch. Julia was amazing and gracefully took on the responsibility of teaching me everything I needed to know to work at a microbiology & geochemistry lab. Working in research can be difficult and it can take years to get authorship on a paper. I was incredibly lucky to be given the opportunity to work on a project that culminated in a manuscript in less than a year on which I was able to put my name.
This manuscript has been through a lot; after submitting it to and getting turned down from Nature, we sent our creation in to Science and were told there was interest but it needed more revisions. This apparently happens fairly often especially with a publication like Science, which is an extremely high caliber research journal. Our paper was resubmitted and I got an email (screenshot below - Dr. Mendes!!! It makes me so happy to see that in print)* telling me to fill out a few authorship forms in order for them to accept the manuscript. ACCEPT?!?!?!! I was nervous to actually tell people it's a definite thing but since that initial email I've gotten confirmation that they're moving ahead with publishing our research! I'm incredibly excited and it really makes all the long hours and wrestling with data collection 110% worth it.
There are a host of things I worry about when I consider how competitive of a med school applicant I am but then something like this happens and it's so reassuring. It's just a reminder that it's always worth it to try your best in everything because it WILL pay off one day. It may sound trite, but it is true. So if you're struggling now just remember that it's not just your test scores and grades that matter, it's everything you do that is a testament to your intelligence, your work ethic and your willingness to keep on keepin' on.

Initial email (Me: Dr. Mendes! Yay!)

*I am not actually a Dr. of any sort, I'm pretty sure they just address all authors as such in order to not step on any toes. 

Acceptance email!!! Wooo!!!

The MCAT is a Sea and I'm Drowning In It

I'm not sure if it's better or worse that I have so many other things in my life that I have to think about on a daily basis that aren't the MCAT. I'm still taking Physics and I have the final to study for, my job is giving me more and more projects and responsibility, my life in general needs maintenance because let's be honest, we all run out of underwear and have to do laundry at some point and who has time for that?
I can't tell if it helps me to keep my mind off the exam in a good way (can't fixate and stress on one thing) or if having all these other worries is just making it worse. I've typically done quite well on standardized tests, but never before have I had to take one that could determine my future. I take some offense to the idea that one test could decide my entry into medical school only because I know so many others who should have done well because they are intelligent and would make wonderful, kind, caring doctors but were disappointed by scores low enough to preclude them from applying.
Luckily, in the midst of feeling overwhelmed, something will inevitably happen to convince me to soldier on. Last week one of my coworkers sent me this article that was in the New England Journal of Medicine and it helped assuage so many fears. Basically it outlined how the trend of many med school admissions committees is towards a more holistic approach to evaluating candidates for the entering class. They consider much more than just MCAT scores and GPAs. They look at work successes and life experience among other things and treat them as equally important. I think this is huge and can only hope that the schools I'm applying to will implement this method of review when going through my application because my research looks much shinier on paper than my academic record.
I've always worked hard but when I was a communications major at BU, GPA just didn't matter. I was selected for a prestigious internship at the Boston Globe my junior year because my professor was impressed with my writing and effort, not because I got an A in her class (because I didn't). Much more stress was placed on your work speaking for itself rather than your grades, especially in a field where you often wrote up to 5 drafts of the same paper. Your first piece was a completely different animal from your final product and depending on the grading system, your professor could consider you to have done very well in his class and end up with a lowly B. When our engineering or pre-med classmates complained about BU's horrendous grade deflation the comm students were unconcerned. We knew that when we applied to work at magazines or journals or newspapers no one would even inquire about our GPA, it was unheard of.
Now I have to face the fact that having a less than ideal GPA is a huge detriment to my medical school application. Although I've had a lot of interesting and varied work and life experiences, the numbers just aren't pretty and that definitely scares me. It's one of the things that I stress out about when I can't immediately drop off to sleep, starting with the MCAT and ending with my low GPA, like a continuous loop in my head.
I was talking about this with my friend the other night and agonizing over whether or not I was even smart enough to be doing this when she said something really important: "you are smart enough to be doing this, otherwise you would never have gotten this far." That really stuck with me. I've gotten this far and there's no way I'm just giving up now. It's hard work, but I think this is the important part because if you can't handle this kind of stress then maybe you can't handle the stress of being in medical school, residency, being a doctor and holding someone's life in your hands (all of which I imagine is much more anxiety-inducing).
When I do feel like the stress is too much, I know I have people there to help me, to send me articles they know will bolster my resolve and encourage me to study harder, to tell me I can do it when I'm not sure I can anymore.
All I can say is that the MCAT might be a sea and I feel like I'm floundering, but I'm so, so thankful for my friends who are there to throw me a life jacket when I need a rest.

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!

I'm taking the MCAT on Saturday, May 18th at 1:00 PM.
Location: Vermont (because I am a horrible procrastinator and didn't sign up early enough all the testing centers in MA were filled but whatever because it'll be nice to go home for a visit)
Days to go: 36 (I'm not even 100% sure this is accurate but I counted it twice so what does that tell you about my math skills?)
Current mental state: Terrified (yep)

Why I Love Khan Academy

I'm a huge fan of anything that helps me understand science in a visual way and +Khan Academy is probably one of the best tools I've found for studying a variety of subjects (most notably the dreaded chemistry & physics).
I have a really hard time understanding concepts just by reading the textbook and taking notes in lecture but having someone draw out a picture or a diagram helps me absorb the information so much better. For me, using Khan Academy is like that part in the Matrix where Neo gets plugged in and starts downloading information directly into his brain and five seconds later he's like...I KNOW KUNG FU. Literally, that is how I feel when I watch these videos because suddenly I get nucleophilic aromatic substitution or the steps of the glycolytic pathway or whatever it is I'm trying desperately to figure out and I understand it in a way I never did before. I'm like a cartoon character with a bright lightbulb suddenly going off above my head (can you tell I'm a science nerd?).
Khan Academy is great because the videos go very slowly and everything is written out so you can see exactly what they're talking about. They break everything down, begin with the smallest, easiest concepts and build up to the harder parts. You can stop and pause or rewind as you wish so you can learn at your own pace. Also, and this might just be me, the instructor has an incredibly friendly/calming voice so I get less frustrated when I don't understand simple harmonic motion (ugh physics).
Because I won't do as good a job explaining the genius behind the system, here is a Ted Talk featuring Salman Khan, the founder of Khan Academy. It's really interesting to hear him talk about designing teaching to better mesh with an individual student's learning style. He's such a proponent of new and innovative ways to teach and because everyone processes information differently I think it's vital to develop new methods of education instead of just taking a traditional approach and funneling everyone into the same curriculum.
If you're interested in using the videos for yourself check them out here, they're FREE to the public (!) and there are thousands of videos on 25+different subjects.
*Just a note - while I find that they're incredibly helpful, they are not necessarily comprehensive so it's better to use them as a study aid instead of as a replacement for textbooks/lectures if you are taking a college-level course.

Surprise! I'm running the 4th annual iChase the Cure 5K for Kid's Brain Tumors on Saturday

This is an awesome event sponsored by iChase the Cure - a growing non profit that is involved in a variety of causes, one being pediatric brain cancer research. 

Here is some more information about the organization/event in case you're interested in running and here is the link to my fundraising page if you feel like donating! All proceeds from the run will directly fund a clinical trial at Dana Farber so your money is going right to where it's needed. 

This cause in particular is special to me because I'm interested in becoming a pediatric doctor one day and working with sick kids and this is a small way for me to contribute now. If we all get involved then we can all have the satisfaction of knowing that we're doing something to help and every little bit counts!

PS I haven't run all winter and yesterday was my first almost three-miler of the year...this is either a good "hurry up and get fighting fit" opportunity or Sunday morning I will wake up like:

"College Kid Forced To Remind Know-It-All Economist That He's Actually Not A Scientist"

Because I have a physics midterm exam tomorrow naturally I am finding it impossible to maintain focus at 11:30 PM and while browsing the internet black hole that is Facebook I discovered this hilarious video. This kid is great and I think it's awesome that he's standing up for the important issues but more importantly - look at Bernie Sanders go! For the uninformed, Bernie is an Independent Senator for VT who I feel really embodies the mindset of our little state. We may be small and we don't often make much of a fuss but when when we do, it's over the things that count! I L ❤VERMONT.