Intramural Football

My football squad, now 2-0.  Nice to get some competition and exercise as a study break.  I got a couple of interceptions in the video.

Portsmouth Clinic

On Sunday morning, RAF held a clinic at a local Portsmouth church.  I got my morning boost of energy, not by caffeine, but by this man yelling outside of his balcony at us.  It took a while to understand what he was saying to us, but we figured it out eventually.  He was apparently frustrated because the children at the church had been doing some type of drill activity in the morning called “Pathfinders” so I guess they were making too much noise for him. 

We set up different stations for the “patients” to navigate.  They would start at the check-in where we gave them a check-in sheet, proceed to get blood pressure checked, auscultate for heart and lung sounds, check BMI, and finally go to my station to get their blood glucose checked.  I had to be the bad guy of the day, pricking the tips of fingers to measure the blood glucose.  I don’t know if it was more painful for them or for me, as I had to watch these kids contort their faces in vivid anticipation of a horrible pain that never came.  Most of the patients didn’t feel much.   Other times I may have held the small needle in too deep or too long… oops. 

It’s fun for me to be able to see trends along the patients BMI, glucose, and BP and predict what the sugar will be.   I also get to find out slight lifestyle differences between those with higher blood sugar (fried white flours) and those with lower blood glucose (usually eating provisions, fish, or rice and beans for breakfast).  I keep on anticipating hearing breakfasts more typical to America, but usually their breakfast is not much different than their lunches may be.  A better alternative to the cereals, bacon, sausage, we are used to.  I also noticed that they don’t eat much dairy.

$10 Million Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE

There are some exciting new developments brewing in the field of medicine.   As healthcare as a whole tends to be on the conservative side of implementing new technology, it is exciting when new developments come along.  One of these is currently being developed is the Qualcomm Tricorder, a winner of the $10 million prize going to the best developer will be crowned in January 2016.  This Tricorder is slated to be a personal diagnostic tool, something similar to a primary care physician in your pocket.

An initial concern of mine is that the development of personal diagnostic tools such as these might lead individuals to render a primary care physician unnecessary.  These tools may lure patients into an overestimation of the knowledge of the extent of their illness, failing to string together the diagnostic clues that a physician would be able to detect.  Ideally, these tools would be supplemental to regular check-ups by a primary care physician and provide quick and easy additional information during the check-up.  

The creator of Xprise, Peter Diamandis, is a physician who graduated from Harvard Medical School.  However, he always had a keen interest for space exploration, and his first Xprise fundraising event was to help develop the technology used for personal space exploration that is seen today.  His passion attracted the help from millionaires and billionaires such as Tony Robbins and Elon Musk.

Dr. Diamandis' efforts show that you don't necessarily have to have the money to develop great ideas, only the passion and consistency to get others to participate in the fruition of your vision.  He also is another model of the diversity of fields that a physician can enter whether that is technology, design, research, etc.  As the technology in the health care field continues to evolve, we may see a radically different healthcare system years down the line.  Hopefully, this new technology serves as a tool for regular health monitoring and a desire to adopt healthy lifestyles, as will be able to easily visualize any small progression in their health using the hand held device.

520,000 Sandwiches

It's important for us to keep in mind that it doesn't take a huge corporation or backing to make a huge difference in the community:

Good eating

It's been a while since I've had good home-cooked food, emphasis on good.  I haven't developed the patience for prep time, cooking, and cleaning required to cook a decent meal.  Fortunately the advisor of the Ross Adventist Fellowship club invited the members over to her house for lunch.  It was a great time of prayer, fellowship, and delicious food.  

Homework

Earlier this week, our professor gave us "homework".  I couldn't help but smile, because for some reason the word instantly brought me way back to the elementary memories of finger painting, making "pigs in a blanket", naps, Friday fun days, even the more painful memories of peeing on myself on the way to the bathroom (which seemed as far as the moon at the time) and laying there on the grass hoping the sun would dry up the stain and save me the embarrassment.... then my thought process was interrupted by the drugs we just learned about.  I couldn't help but think how in that moment there was either not enough beta-2 receptor stimulation (causing the bladder to relax) or the receptors were already saturated.  Or maybe there was not enough sympathetic alpha-1 receptor stimulation to keep the internal sphincter of the bladder closed in that shameful moment.  Oh how a few pills of Ephedrine would have came in handy.  Nevertheless, the end result was a wet spot on my shorts and yellow socks (TMI?).  To which I think I tried to explain by saying that the grass was wet at that spot I was laying.

Medical school is a whole different beast because of the pace at which we the material is presented.   Inevitably, these subjects keep filling the crevices of my brain, eventually spilling out onto nostalgic memories... something like urinary incontinence.