Anecdotes and advice about preparing for a career in health

Category: Alumni (Page 1 of 2)

Reflecting on my drive to become a physician – An Alum Story

Since graduating Tufts in May of 2015 I have worked as a medical scribe for a primary care doctor, continued my personal fitness training practice (testimonials can be found at leahloveslife.weebly.com), and obtained my Certification in Sustainable Health & Nutrition. In this past year, I have continued expanding my role as a medical scribe, pursuing clinical research, working as a personal fitness trainer, and furthering my nutrition and botanical medicine education.

Since implementing a mindfulness based intervention (MBI) in children with and without emotional behavioral disorders during my senior year, I have conducted a MBI literature review and submitted my paper to the Advances in School Mental Health Promotion Journal. I have also directed Belmont Medical’s 1st clinical trials exploring the role of integrative medicine in primary care and will submit my formal write up to an alternative and complementary journal before August.
 
Throughout my work, I have applied to 26 medical schools (MD and DO), interviewed at 7 schools, been granted acceptance to 5, am waiting on 2, and have withdrawn the rest of my applications. While it has been a long and seemingly never ending process, applying to medical school while working directly with patients has been very rewarding. I have enjoyed reflecting on my drive to become a physician and the experiences that have shaped me as I continue to take part in the many intimate patient encounters so deeply ingrained in primary care.
 
My work as a medical scribe has sharpened my direction in the health care world and confirmed my dedication to helping people in a primary care setting. I have been very fortunate to work with a compassionate doctor who has involved me in every step of the process and encouraged the deep relationships I have formed with his patients. I am forever grateful for my experiences in his practice and am excited to attend medical school in the fall.

Medical Content Editor at OPENPediatrics

We received the following job opening from an alumnus:

OPENPediatrics is an online community of clinicians sharing best practices from all resource settings around the world through innovative collaboration and digital learning technologies. OPENPediatrics looks specifically to hire recent pre-med graduates planning on spending one or two years working before going to medical school. In addition to working on educational video, medical video editors gain access to frequent shadowing opportunities in the ICU, and are invited to attend various conferences at the Hospital.

I have enjoyed unique access to the hospital in this role, which has helped me to develop my understanding of medicine and explore my own interests in entering the field, while producing a valuable and unique product.  I plan on spending another year working for OPENPediatrics as I apply to medical school, and wanted to make sure that graduating Tufts students were aware of this opportunity.  I believe I remember receiving newsletters with similar job opportunities when I was graduating, and thought I would touch base about this.  You can find the job application through the Boston Children’s Hospital website.

Anyone who is interested or has questions can reach out to Sam Helrich ‘15 at samuel.helrich@childrens.harvard.edu.

Research Assistant at Orthopaedic and Arthritis Center for Outcomes Research

TITLE: Research Assistant

The Orthopaedic and Arthritis Center for Outcomes Research, an internationally recognized clinical and policy research group at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is looking for a Research Assistant. This position will provide you with an opportunity to work in the exciting Longwood Medical Area academic environment, which is home to Harvard Schools of Medicine and Public Health and several large academic medical centers, and to be involved in cutting edge clinical and health policy research. This is a great opportunity for those planning to attend graduate school or medical school, or to continue working in research.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities:

Assist with clinical research studies and duties may include some combination of the following:

  • Facilitate and carryout analyses using a computer simulation model
  • Learn the basics of cost-effectiveness analysis
  • Develop additional structural features for the simulation model, and describe the implementation of these additions to the model programmer
  • Summarize data and generate reports; present findings at weekly and monthly meetings
  • Conduct literature reviews on relevant research topics
  • Prepare presentations and assist with writing, referencing, and editing manuscripts for academic publication
  • Assist with the development and submission of grant proposals
  • Work directly and regularly with OrACORe faculty (Clinicians, Biostatisticians, and Epidemiologists) to design studies, implement protocols, analyze study data, and report results from OrACORe-led studies
  • Conduct enrollment and follow-up telephone/in-person interviews and collect survey responses from study participants enrolled in studies
  • Serve as a primary contact for study participants
  • Perform medical chart reviews
  • Perform data cleaning; organize and document study data
  • Correspond with and prepare materials for the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for protocol amendments, consent form changes, and annual reports
  • Attend and lead regularly scheduled project-specific and group-wide meetings
  • Perform administrative duties, such as preparing meeting agendas and taking minutes, as needed

Requirements

  • Bachelor’s degree
  • Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail
  • Intellectual independence and initiative
  • Strong analytical skills
  • Ability to work as a team member and independently
  • Exceptional oral and written communication, and interpersonal skills
  • Experience in decision analytic methods and cost-effectiveness analysis desirable
  • Proficiency with standard office software (Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint as well as Internet applications) and the ability to learn new computer applications
  • Interest in public health, biostatistics, epidemiology, health policy, medicine, computer science and/or applied mathematics

Please submit your resume, cover letter, and unofficial transcript to Faith Selzer at fselzer@partners.org.

Research Associate I – Genomics at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Position Description

 

Title: Research Associate I

Classification: Exempt, Research Staff

Reports To: Jens Lohr, M.D., Ph.D., Principal Investigator

OVERALL RESPONSIBILITY

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is looking for an exceptional candidate for a unique Research Associate position. This position affords the exciting opportunity to be part of a research effort at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute aiming to delineate genomic aberrations in cancer biology and discover novel therapeutic targets. The candidate will assist in the development of cancer models from primary human tumors and human cell lines that represent different cellular lineages and drug-resistant states. He/she will use modern next generation sequencing techniques to characterize genomic aberrations and modern functional perturbation techniques including lentiviral knockdown and genome editing tools. He/she will test the model systems in immuno-compromised mice for their ability to form tumors and to test for drug responses. He/she will be part of a multi-disciplinary team that evaluates new technologies and approaches to discover and validate novel systemic cancer biology.

The candidate is expected to work largely independently on a daily basis after training, but will be closely mentored by the prinicipal investigators and others.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute provide a vibrant research environment with close links to top academic institutions across the Boston and Cambridge area and provide the potential for your contributions to be used and recognized worldwide.

CHARACTERISTIC DUTIES

  • Learn and execute existing pipeline of in vitro bioassays, high dimensional phenotypic readouts, and animal protocols.
  • Learn, execute and further develop protocols and explore novel techniques of low input genomics.
  • Handles cell culture of sensitive primary human cells. Uses established protocols and works closely with Broad and DFCI platforms, facilities, and collaborators.
  • Works with mouse models to assess tumor formation, and drug response.
  • Operates and maintains laboratory equipment to complete investigations.
  • Prepares, orders, and maintains stocks of necessary reagents, solutions and supplies.
  • Documents, compiles, and analyzes experimental protocols and data.
  • Attends team meetings to share results, plan projects and experiments.
  • Other related tasks as required.

SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

  • 

Strong interpersonal, communication, and organizational skills, including the ability to handle a variety of tasks in a fast-paced environment, large complex experiments, and large data sets, all of which demand great attention to detail.
  • Proactive in identifying problems and solutions to address them.
  • Must be an exceptional team player.
  • Must possess a high level of initiative and the ability to work independently.

QUALIFICATIONS

  • Bachelor degree in Biology or related field required. 0-2 yrs of experience working in a scientific research setting a plus.
  • Familiarity of basic cell culture and molecular biology laboratory techniques, including recombinant DNA and protein biochemistry, strongly desired.
  • Familiarity with fluorescent microscopy or flow cytometry is desirable.

If interested, please contact the prinicipal investigator:

Jens Lohr, MD PhD

Division of Hematologic Neoplasia and Center for Cancer Precision Medicine

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

jensg_lohr@dfci.harvard.edu

Research Associate I – Epigenetics at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Position Description

 Title: Research Associate I

Classification: Exempt, Research Staff

Reports To: Birgit Knoechel, M.D., Ph.D., Principal Investigator

OVERALL RESPONSIBILITY

The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is looking for an exceptional candidate for a unique Research Associate position. This position affords the exciting opportunity to be part of a research effort at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute aiming to delineate epigenomic aberrations in cancer and discover novel therapeutic targets. The candidate will assist in the development of cancer models from primary human tumors and human cell lines that represent different cellular lineages and drug-resistant states. He/she will use modern next generation sequencing techniques to characterize the chromatin state of these tumors and modern functional perturbation techniques including lentiviral knockdown and genome editing tools. He/she will test the model systems in immuno-compromised mice for their ability to form tumors and to test for drug responses. He/she will be part of a multi-disciplinary team that evaluates new technologies and approaches to discover and validate novel systemic cancer biology.

The candidate is expected to work largely independently on a daily basis after training, but will be closely mentored by the prinicipal investigators and others.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute provide a vibrant research environment with close links to top academic institutions across the Boston and Cambridge area and provide the potential for your contributions to be used and recognized worldwide.

CHARACTERISTIC DUTIES

  • Learn and execute existing pipeline of in vitro bioassays, high dimensional phenotypic readouts, and animal protocols.
  • Learn, execute and further develop protocols and explore novel techniques of low input epigenomics.
  • Handles cell culture of sensitive primary human cells. Uses established protocols and works closely with Broad and DFCI platforms, facilities, and collaborators.
  • Works with mouse models to assess tumor formation, and drug response.
  • Operates and maintains laboratory equipment to complete investigations.
  • Prepares, orders, and maintains stocks of necessary reagents, solutions and supplies.
  • Documents, compiles, and analyzes experimental protocols and data.
  • Attends team meetings to share results, plan projects and experiments.
  • Other related tasks as required.

SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

  • 

Strong interpersonal, communication, and organizational skills, including the ability to handle a variety of tasks in a fast-paced environment, large complex experiments, and large data sets, all of which demand great attention to detail.
  • Proactive in identifying problems and solutions to address them.
  • Must be an exceptional team player.
  • Must possess a high level of initiative and the ability to work independently.

QUALIFICATIONS

  • Bachelor degree in Biology or related field required. 0-2 yrs of experience working in a scientific research setting a plus.
  • Familiarity of basic cell culture and molecular biology laboratory techniques, including recombinant DNA and protein biochemistry, strongly desired.
  • Familiarity with fluorescent microscopy or flow cytometry is desirable.

If interested, please contact the prinicipal investigator:

Birgit Knoechel, MD PhD

Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School

Associate Member, Broad Institute

birgit_knoechel@dfci.harvard.edu

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