Free Post #5 Electric Fields to Deliver Cancer Treatment

Chemotherapy is one of the most frequently used and effective treatments for cancer. The only problem with its treatment is that it also kills healthy cells within the patient’s body.  During chemotherapy drugs are injected into the patient’s blood stream, but only a small amount of the drug actually reaches the cancer. The rest kills healthy cells on the way.

A new technique called iontophoresis delivers high concentrations of chemotherapy to select areas, reducing the risk of damaging healthy tissue. This technique uses an electric field to propel drugs into the tumor. With this new technique there would be less side effects and faster treatment times.

As an aspiring medical professional, reading articles like this one really gives me drive to continue my studies. Knowing that I could have the potential to create a treatment that will save many peoples lives is one of the greatest feelings.

Prompt #4 Recognizing Significance

            There is no doubt that the medical profession is one of the most important jobs in today’s society. Yet it is still one of the most over looked jobs too. Most people see going to the doctor as a burden, and punishment (Most kids). Yet it is for the benefit of the most important thing, your body.

            After reading the news article John Mellencamp meets doctor who saved his life from CBS the importance of medicine was revamped for me. Singer John Mellencamp was born with spina bifida a birth defect in which a developing baby's spinal cord fails to develop properly. His life was saved by receiving a pioneering operation, he was the first patient to receive it.

            He met back up with the neurosurgeon who saved his life 62 years before. They talked about faith for over an hour together. As a result, on his tour his final show is going to benefit the hospital that saved hid life. This just shows how the importance of medicine to save lives, but also affect others in way that allow drives them to donate time/money to save others.

Free Post #4 Why I Chose My Career Path

            Ever since I was little I wanted to be like my dad, a successful businessman who started from nothing and worked his way up. But as the years passed by, my interest started to veer towards the ways of medicine.

            To be honest the person who had the most influence on my decision was my pediatrician growing up. He was an extremely nice older gentleman whose main goal was to make the kids smile. Like most young kids I hated going to the doctor, but he was the only one that made it bearable to my adolescent self.

            When I see myself in medicine I see myself as him, always making kids/patients happy because going to the doctor is not always an enjoyable experience. Just knowing that every day you wake up you are going to change someone’s life for the better. I don’t know a better feeling then that. Like they say if you do what you love you never work a day in your life.

Free Post #3 Having Fun In Medical School

            The biggest worry of most medical students is how will I have fun? For me this is one of my biggest fears. Only as a freshman I have been open up to new scene, that scene is college. Most people think that college is all fun except for med students, they believe all they do is stay in and study. I hope to break this stigma, and by reading It's Possible To Have Fun During Medical School there is hope for me.

            By reading a post from Dr. Eric Lu, I learned the techniques he adopted to have fun while he was in school. He mentioned that since the classes get so small you really get to know the people around you and become very close with them. The people around you is really what makes it fun.

           There was one thing he didn't mention that kind of shocked me, he never mentioned anything about partying. This is what I hoped he would have addressed and deemed it a myth, but to my demise he didn't. This is not a worry to me though, I have these next couple years to have fun. When it comes time for med school I know this will decide my future, and as I look back I don't want to see me as a partier and not being able to go to med school because of it.

          

Contemplating Controversy Prompt #3

            One of the biggest debated subjects in the field of medicine is if the patient is allowed to commit physician-assisted suicide (Euthanasia). What this means is if a patient is so ill passed the point of being comfortable, he/she is able to end their own life get rid of the pain.

            There are two sides to this topic, both with extremely different mindsets about this controversial topic. The two are it’s a humans right to choose if they want to die, and the other is it’s not their choice.

            First off the Pro-Euthanasia has about 8 different arguments:

1(1)   It’s a human Right

2(2)   Mercy: cruel and inhumane to refuse someone their right to die

3(3)   Libertarian Argument: Should be allowed when it’s the best interest of all involved, and doesn’t violate anyone’s rights

4(4)   Resources: Cost effective for death ex: medical bills to stay alive even though you’ll eventually die

5(5)   Universality: Everyone deserves a good death

6(6)   Inevitability: it’ll happen anyway so why not have it regulated

7(7)   Death is not always bad: since it’s not a bad thing so why would making it come sooner be bad?

8(8)   Morally equivalent: Passive and active euthanasia are equivalent; passive just allowing yourself to die, active actually killing yourself

Second, Con-Euthanasia has around 10 basic arguments, but here are the important ones:

1(1)   Fear: The pain involved in future and scared to fight it

2(2)   Undermines medical excellence: easier to administer euthanasia than to care for a patient

3(3)   Personal autonomy important, but never absolute: person’s decision to die has life long effects on the lives of others

4(4)   Violates accepted codes of medical ethics: Euthanasia is condemned unethical by World Medical Association

5(5)   Pressure on the elderly: some feel it’s their right to die because they have become a burden on others

These are the arguments presented at every debate about this subject. There will always be a right and wrong, but it’s for you to decide as an individual.
Source:
Basic Arguments About Euthanasia