Systems-Based Practice CEO 5.4: Identify and utilize professional role models as a means of growth and accept the responsibility of acting as a role model and teaching and training others.
My first course in radiology occurred many years before I became a medical student, when I was a young toddler. My grandfather, a cardiologist and medical school professor, often brought me with him to the hospital in which he lectured. As one of the first physicians to use echocardiography in China, many of his talks revolved around that very subject. At that age, I was fascinated by how one could use technology to create real-time images of what was happening inside a patient’s body, thus sparking my interest in radiographic imaging and medicine.
Following matriculation into medical school, I joined the College’s Ultrasound Student Interest Group and participated in its extracurricular offerings, namely the Trained Simulated Ultrasound Patient (TSUP) program and the Intermediate Ultrasound course. Through TSUP, I served as an ultrasound anatomical model for ultrasound practice scanning sessions, medical school imaging sessions, and ultrasound courses offered by the Ultrasound Student Interest Group including Intermediate Ultrasound. Under the guidance of a proctor, my fellow classmates practiced various scanning techniques on me. During these sessions, my peers and I collaborated to learn how to perform these tests and interpret the images we produced.
Intermediate Ultrasound is an extracurricular course that is designed to help students gain proficiency in core Ultrasound scans, including Cardiac, Abdominal, Fetal and Pelvic, Procedural, and Critical Care. We attended evening didactics during which we learned about the scan (indications, acquisition, interpretation, and medical management) and practiced scanning. There were also dedicated scanning sessions students could sign up for additional practice. For topics such as Fetal and Pelvic or Procedural, we performed scans on plastic models. For the remainder, we practiced scanning on TSUP models. I sometimes volunteered to serve as a TSUP model during our didactics and thus had the opportunity to scan myself. As part of the course requirement, we saved images from our didactic or scanning sessions. We also took an exam at the end to assess what we had learned.
Images of my scans from the Fetal and Pelvic Ultrasound Didactic Session
Intermediate Ultrasound Certificate
The opportunity to serve as an ultrasound model and to learn how to perform ultrasound scans so early in my medical school career has greatly impacted my medical training and career. Firstly, ultrasound is an immensely useful skill that has applications across all fields of medicine, including Emergency, Trauma, Critical Care, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Surgery, and Cardiology just to name a few. Secondly, it is a very fast and safe scan that can provide life-saving or critical information for medical management. However, with any other skill, becoming skilled in ultrasound takes practice. By starting during my pre-clinical years in medical school, I will be much more experienced by the time I am asked to do these scans as an intern or resident.
Through ultrasound, I have seen the diagnostic and therapeutic value of radiographic imaging. We can use ultrasound to help diagnose an ectopic pregnancy, screen for an abdominal aorta aneurysm, insert central lines, or administer medications. Other imaging techniques such as plain radiographs, computed tomography (CT), or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can also be applied for similar purposes. A child with a fractured radius and ulna will need a forearm radiograph to diagnose the fracture, radiographs during the reduction to confirm proper placement of the bones, and follow up radiographs to assess healing. I am amazed by how much information we can obtain noninvasively through radiographic imaging.
Ultrasound has augmented my learning throughout medical school. Although I was learning anatomy through cadaveric dissections as part of the medical school curriculum, it was a different experience to see pictures of these same organs moving and functioning inside a living human. This connection helped me realize that, through imaging, I had the potential to detect abnormal pathology in time to alter the course of disease and improve the lives of patients. As such, I have chosen radiology as my medical specialty, and I am so excited to begin my training come July 2018.