Kenny Nguyen/Dr. Jonathan Weinsaft - Week 7

 Week 7: 07/17/23 - 07/21/23

This week I continued to shadow the cardiology fellows in reading cardiac MRI scans, and I had the opportunity to work with a biomedical engineer at General Electric. During this time, new cardiology fellows have joined the Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging Lab to take over the positions of the previous fellows. It was astonishing to see the new fellows become accustomed to the environment and learn how to use the radiology software in a couple of weeks when it took me a whole summer! Additionally, I was able to learn about other cardiovascular imaging programs at other hospitals from the new fellows. As the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases continues to rise globally, it is interesting to see how different hospitals develop their own specialized programs to meet the diverse needs of patients. This has reminded me of the comprehensive training that medical doctors go through to provide the highest quality of healthcare.

In addition, I worked with a lab collaborator who is a biomedical engineer at General Electric. I was able to learn about his role as a clinical scientist and his experience in his PhD program. To provide some background information, he is responsible for developing new MRI sequences for the scanners used at the medical center, specifically, for cardiac imaging. I learned the different platforms that he used to develop sequences and the workflow of implementing new sequences into the software used by the MRI technicians at the hospital. It was amazing to see him develop intricate sequences that enhance MRI image quality and resolution for different cases. Some of the fundamental things that he aimed to improve in these sequences was to mitigating artifacts, improve signal-to-noise ratio, and reduce scan times without compromising diagnostic accuracy.

To connect the different things that I learned about this week, as technology and medical research continues to evolve, hospitals must adapt and innovate to provide the best care possible. I had the privilege of seeing this in real-time through collaborations with engineers and medical doctors to start initiatives that bridge the gap between technology and medicine. This experience has granted me a new perspective in understanding the bigger picture of healthcare and providing my own engineering perspective to the clinician methodology. 


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