Health Fellows Present Results of Year-Long Research Projects
Dan Scollan
Issue date: 4/23/02 Section: News
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Through speeches and Powerpoint presentations, the students discussed results of clinical research conducted in area hospitals in conjunction with local doctors. The six remaining students in the program will present on Tuesday, April 23, in the Washington Room at the same time.
The Health Fellows Program is an academic program founded in 1999 to provide Trinity students with practical exposure to careers in health care. The program is led by co-directors Dr. Sarah Raskin and Dr. Laurel Baldwin-Ragaven. The program provides students with work experiences that will aid in future career choices. It also supplies a significant advantage for students applying to graduate schools in medicine and the health sciences. Members are chosen through a rigourous selection process.
The Health Fellows work thirty hours a week for a healthcare professional beginning in the spring semester. They are matched with their medical supervisor according to their individual interests. They follow the doctor through their daily work and conduct research in coordination with the doctor. Many students will have their research findings published in the scientific journal.
In addition, the students attend a weekly seminar class entitled Topics in Health Care. The course covers issues such as the placebo effect, the right to die, and racial biases in health care. Members also attend a colloqium series in which the medical supervisors working with the students make presentations on their current research or clinical issues.
Robert McGovern '03, a neuroscience major with an interest in pediatrics, made a presentation entitled "Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis (ADEM): A Retrospective Pediatric Study." McGovern worked with Dr. Francis DiMario of Connecticut Children's Medical Center, a pediatric neurologist. ADEM is a neurological disorder found in young children which is similar to MS. He learned as much as he could about the disease through reading numerous journal articles. He obtained hundreds of patients records and selected 14 of these patients to include in the study.
McGovern enjoyed working for and learning from his supervisor: "He was probably the most helpful guy I've met."
Concernign the relationship that formed over time between the two men, McGovern added, "It was pretty much the best I could have hoped for."
Kevin Marques '03, who has an interest in pediatric surgery, made a presentation entitled "Aorto-Pulmonary Window: Delayed Presentation With Primary Repair." Working with Dr. Dennis Mello of Hartford Hospital, he researched and followed the succesful surgery of a young Bosnian immigrant suffering from a rare congenital heart disease.
He did research in the Hartford Hospital library and was able "to see exactly what a surgeon does." His experience has affirmed his desire to become a surgeon in the future.
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