Week 7- Chase Webb

Since this post is coming after the conclusion of the immersion experience, I wanted to take the time to reflect on it as a whole. Overall, I am quite happy with what I saw and learned. I really enjoyed being able to shadow Dr. Kim in the clinic and observe procedures in the cardiac catheterization lab. I am grateful that so many patients let me sit in on their visits. While I got to see a number of things throughout the summer, the opportunity to see so many patents over the course of immersion in the clinic and cath lab let me understand what does that average patients and procedure look like. I do not think I could have gotten this by having a shortened immersion or by reading literature alone. This was something I needed repeated exposure to learn. I think this information will be very useful in my future work as well, since I now have a better understanding of what a majority of patients face and want from their doctors, as well as what doctors are able to do and usually do for their patients.

I believe that was the most important thing I learned during immersion was how much medicine is informed and constrained by human and other non-quantifiable elements. One big part of learning this was that treatments might not be able to address 100% of a person's condition (in fact, medicines rarely do). Even though we as engineers might seek to find a solution that perfectly addresses a problem, or at least one that is optimal given the constraints on a system, we should instead look more toward treatments that can be tailored not only to a patient's physical needs but to their desires. Function for a patient may not be measured for them in ejection fraction. Rather, it is their physical ability to take part in activities that they enjoy. This means something different to every patient. An older patient may not need the heart that they had when they were in their 20's, but one that lets them walk with their grandkids and continue to live independently in their two story house. Minimizing side effects is a big part of this pursuit, since medicines that might otherwise allow patients to live the lives they want may cause other problems that prevent people from wanting to keep taking them.

In my own work, this will mean creating ECM based treatments for heart regeneration that are well tolerated and at least stabilize the heart after an MI. We might not be able to get a patient's heart to completely regenerate after injury, but if we can minimize the scar and preserve enough function for patients to live relatively normal lives that may be enough for many patients. The research trajectory of these two end point goals will likely diverge during the investigatory process, and knowing when a treatment is good enough is an important skill due to the time it takes to get a treatment from the bench to the clinic.