Fast Forward to Life After MD/PhD in 2016

Lately I've been reading medicine blogs, science blogs, and even blogs about blogs. However, a quick search of MD/PhD blogs shows that most of them fall by the wayside at some point during the blogger's career. Hopefully some people will prove me wrong and connect with me here!

Source: Pixabay

Blogging had fallen so far on the wayside for me that I had no recollection of my own blog until I found it through SDN via Google search (previously at sunshinydianmond.blogspot.com). It tickled me to read my own entry from June 18, 2007, two weeks before I even started the MD/PhD program, where I chronicled the important decisions for the next 8 years of my life. In an attempt to revive this blog, here is an update on my life since then and the answers to those questions:

1. Graduate school (multiple Ph.D. programs available at MIT and Harvard) 
   - Biological Biomedical Sciences at Harvard Medical School
2. Lab mentors x 3  
   - After multiple rotations, I worked with Bill Hahn at Dana Farber / Broad Institute
3. Some new friends x many  
   - I'd say so!
4. A thesis topic  
   - Done and done 2013!
5. A boyfriend  
   - Now husband as of 2015!
6. A medical specialty  
   - Pediatric Neurology, currently in PL1 year of 5
7. A research specialization  
   - Still in the works, but I'm thinking about topics in human genetics in neurology

8. What I will do with the rest of my life after I graduate?
Good thing I don't have it all figured out yet. Or else what would I do with the rest of my life?

Family

Our spring break just started, and many of my classmates have gone home to see their families. I was almost dismissive of this idea, as I felt that I wanted to visit friends, see places, do newer more interesting things while I had the chance. Last night, I was thinking about where I'd like to go during the week, and realized how little chance I have to be at home anymore. I've never been a very good daughter, only calling home every few months, getting annoyed at my mom for disturbing my work even though she only calls once every few weeks and only for a few minutes, planning to do everything except go home. This summer,  I will have almost no extra time to visit family, but it had been reasonable to me.

But last night, I decided that I need to see my family. So I switched the airplane ticket from May to a ticket 2 days from now. It's going to be a surprise. I changed my dad's airline email account so he wouldn't get the confirmation email. I'll just take a passenger shuttle home. I think it's a good plan, and the thought of this surprise is making me happy.

Researching Researchers

I have been wanting to visit Singapore's famous Biopolis for a while now to experience the multibillion dollar investment in biotechnology and its rumored international mixing pot of acclaimed faculty members. Finally this summer I am going to go talk to researchers there to study the nature of the global networks that connect researchers there to the rest of the world. I am excited about this opportunity to be involved in an entirely new project outside my expertise, to visit new places and meet new people, and think about science from a different perspective.

In talking to faculty members about my projects, I have so far received two dramatically different responses. One is exuberantly optimistic about the type of stories I'll be able to hear from people and how reasonable it would be to write a publishable article at the end. The other sits rather high in the ivory tower of academia and wonders why anyone thinks they can even attempt such a project without a background in the field. I have had a few good leads on people to talk to.. so I will barge ahead and see what happens..

Since I am working in a stem cell lab right now, my mentor suggested that I do some research on the members of my own lab. All together, I could put together an interesting comparative case on the high profile stem cell labs in the most prominent biomedical centers in the world.

Primary Care Interview

As I was studying in the education center today, a woman comes over and introduces herself as a journalist. I agree to be interviewed for her article, and we start the tape. The first question is, have you had influences that encourage you to pursue primary care. hahah... my response? "Let me share a bit of my background, I am actually an HST MD/PhD student... (read: very very likely not ever primary care)." But she was still interested in hearing from me, and in fact, we had a very interesting conversation. I made two points about primary care that I honestly had never thought about before the moment I said them.

1. The payoff for going into primary care right now is not worth the investment. This is true economically, socially (the glam of the profession), or intellectually. But as the numbers decline, and this profession comes into high demand, then the relative value of this field will increase and again attract more students to it.

2. In terms of how to attract more people to the field. Just as how in HST/MSTP, we are on a set path and are passionate about academic research, if there were such a program for primary care, we would have equally passionate people dedicated to going into that field. If such a program existed at Harvard, these students would be backed by the prestige and opportunities available.

Right now, I'm thinking that Harvard doesn't deem the shortage in primary care as significant enough to initiate such a program. The journalist also said that of all the people she's interviewed here, no one has suggested such a possibility (which I believe also speaks to the general mindset).

Skulls

I haven't written in here for a while mainly because every time I feel like I have something to share, I realize that it is unbelievably nerdy and no one would possibly interested except for me. Well, no, I think some things would be interesting to share, but a weblog would not do them justice.

What is neat though is what's sitting on the table in front of me right now. A real human skull. There's something creepily satisfying about it being midnight right now and having a dead person's head in front of me. Every person in our class has one on loan for the semester. It costs several thousand dollars, and is as real as can be. The funny thing is, I was carrying it in its box a few days ago when a random person stopped me to ask what was in my black box. I hesitated a moment before saying truthfully "a skull." They stared a moment, then gave a knowing smile, replying "human? ..haha, i'm just kidding.." Before I could reply, they had already walked off, snickering at the good joke between us.