My Attempt at a Personal Statement

I truly admire the qualities of physicians, and it has been these qualities that have inspired me to pursue the lifestyle known as medicine. My earliest experiences with anaphylaxis instilled in me awe for this amazing class of human beings. I was impressed by their ability to use knowledge to save lives in real time, and through the advancement of the medicine via research. A recurring quality trait I noticed among the physicians was the willingness of self-sacrifice to be in service of others. Even if the sacrifices were great, such as only spending time with your family twice a month or missing your son’s baseball games, they treaded the path because they understood a greater calling. My mentors understood that they held people’s lives in their hands, and this great responsibility superseded personal lifestyle preference.

From my experiences, I’ve realized that practice of medicine is a duty. Someone has given you his/her well-being. It’s a calling that one takes upon himself/herself to reduce suffering of those with disease. However, why would anyone want to take on the responsibility of another’s well being? Especially if it means sacrificing their own quality of life. From what I’ve seen, there seems to be a metaphysical basis in the endeavor of medicine. The stereotypical physician seems to be a particular type of person. This person can only derive true fulfillment through reducing the suffering of others; it seems that other activities in life are unable to parallel the joy of curing someone’s disease. I can relate to these people because I also can’t stand seeing others suffer.

Deflection Catheters and more!

Hello errybody!

I'm going to use this post to talk about what I've learned in research, what I found interesting, what I can see myself doing in terms of projects, and how it may influence my vision of the future. For those of you who don't already know, I'm working in an interventional radiology lab in SF. So far it's been great, as the people have been great. The MD's in this lab are ridiculously intelligent, but on top of that they have amazing social skills which translates into a really nice working environment. A lot times we end up watching YouTube videos in the morning that are parodies of medical professions or will start making jokes about the small annoyances of being on-call. It's really fun, and more importantly for me, it's very laid back and pressure free; something I didn't necessarily feel in my previous lab experience (even though it was also an awesome experience, but the vibe was different). I really appreciate the humility of my lab P.I's. These are people who've graduated from Harvard and UCSF, and are undoubtedly brilliant, but you would never know it until you've followed them around and seen their work, and this is due to the fact that they don't brag at all. A resident in our lab told me that these our P.I.'s are really good examples of how doctors should be, and that if I were looking for good mentors and more importantly positive role models in medicine, I could find no better physicians. So far, from my time in lab and shadowing, the resident has been right. Everyone in the department of radiology, from administrators to nurses simply adore these two physicians. Why? because they're genuinely nice people who love to form bonds and relationships with everyone around them. It seems to be an important quality that physicians should have.

After shadowing these guys around, I wondered why these doctors were able to carry such a positive attitude wherever they went? It must be because they've found their calling and place in life (also in medicine). Their positive attitude and good-hearted humor, has resulted from the satisfaction of what they do. It rubs off on their peers and has creased an almost pressure-free working environment. People in the O.R. are generally happy, which has translated to better coordination and willingness to help each other out. Why is this so significant? Because it ultimately translates to better care. It's seems logical, if people are satisfied with their work and the relationship with their peers, it creates positive energy or drive as an underlying tone for a workplace. I mean when I was there, I felt it.

In the radiology O.R., I learned a bit about myself. The place where I ultimately practice medicine should be a place where I can fit in well. I should be able to foster good relationships with nurses, techs, and other physicians. I realize that not every place can be an exact fit but it takes the a positive attitude and initiative to create a hospitable environment; something I've learned in my college days. My best work was done in a group, which I could spend hours with and still have fun. I strongly believe a good working environment can create a sustainable motivation that can ward off long-term disillusionment. A good analogy is plaque build-up in arteries because as plaque keeps building...eventually you will stroke-out due to occlusion. A proper environment can give a physician a wave of positive energy to ride when working long hours and being under stress. Some of my earlier labs, at Davis, were filled with people who weren't happy with their work, rather they were more concerned with prestige/reputation. This type of self-concern mentality rubbed off on everyone else, ultimately creating a underlying tone which was negative. No one looked out for each other, and failures were welcomed by competing post-docs. I remembered that I didn't like coming to work as time went on, and it became harder to go above and beyond as I wasn't enfranchised to work collaboratively in a dog eat dog environment. I wanted to help people because to me that's what research is about. It's not about getting your name on some paper, so you can feel important.

Now, I will proceed to talk about the projects I'm involved with. My main project revolves around modifying a new type of catheter invented by the P.I.'s of my lab. What is unique about this catheter is that it can utilize the external magnetic field (B0) within an MRI to navigate itself into difficult to reach distal blood vessels...potentially anyway. So far it's been demonstrated in paraffin gel models and worked well. Under an MRI birdcage coil, Physicians were able to successfully steer the tip of the catheter at vascular intersections, so the model demonstrates that it would likely work within human vasculature. My end of the project is to add the ability of thermal ablation to the catheter by utilizing RF current. So in addition to deflection-navigation, the goal is to also be able to lesion tumors, tissue, and perform embolizations. There are already magnetic coils at the tip of the catheter which deflect based on current from a power source; we can change current characteristics to generate heat at the tip of the catheter, thereby adding a function of thermal ablation. It's a simple addition to functionality, that really expands the utility of this device, which makes this a really interesting project. Also, what's great is that hospitals don't need to invest into new equipment, as conventional MRIs and power sources can be used for this mechanism. Cool stuff.

I'm starting to like this project a lot. I'm a tech geek so device development is super interesting. Medical devices, in particular, is a new world I've never been exposed to; at least in terms of development. I like this deflection project because the development involves different fields interacting in novel ways to produce technology that works with biology. It's essentially an interaction of physics, biology, engineering and translational science. I'm a bit more interested with this than my previous tumor projects, which were very tumor biology oriented with a bit of engineering (but most of the physics was already characterized for CED). This project is more stimulating as I get to think in a very multi-faceted way. I have to integrate from what I've learned in my physics class to what I know physiologically, which allows me to think in multiple dimensions. In fact, I have to refer to my college physics textbook now in order to refamiliarize myself with circuits! Also, this project represents two of my interests, technological development and medical application, being meld into one construct; so I think it has a lot of potential for me to become invested and passionate. We'll see as time goes on....still exploring!

Luckily, for all the very deep engineering aspects we're collaborating with a Ph.D from the UC biomedical devices laboratory, so I can mainly focus on how to develop this technology in a clinically relevant way; which is pretty awesome. For this project I'm working under a radiology resident, and because it's at such a foundational phase my involvement is deep. We both kind of don't know what we're doing, but we have big dreams, and with some help we're figuring things out along the way. It's a crazy ride, but life's all about the ride! As for my second project, which is essentially a retrospective data analysis on previous endovascular cases, it hasn't started yet so I don't have much to talk about. I'll keep everyone posted on any events/developments.

Take Care,

Saif