Program: Island Medical Program and Biomedical Engineering Program
Year in Program: 3
I’m curious. Engineering lets me be exactly that. I spend my days identifying complex issues and creating elegant solutions to them. Medicine, on the other hand, allows me to work closely with people and navigate their healthcare journeys with them. It seemed pretty obvious that putting the two together through the MD/PhD program was a perfect fit for me. I learn and apply enormous amounts of knowledge in two vastly different, but equally interesting, fields. I get to have it all!
A kidney, an ultrasound probe, and an MD/PhD student walk into a lab…
Terrible jokes aside, I research chronic kidney disease (CKD). With rates of diabetes and hypertension increasing, CKD impacts nearly 10 per cent of Canadians. Of those Canadians, many will reach the point of needing dialysis or a kidney transplant.
While dialysis is good, it’s a tremendous burden on your quality of life. On the other hand, transplant waitlists take years if you don’t have a donor lined up. Even if you receive a kidney, you require lifelong monitoring to ensure that your new organ is healthy. With CKD, there’s thought to be some underlying damage that occurs and builds up before we can currently detect it. That’s what I focus in on.
I explore how we can use ultrasound imaging to quantify changes in the kidney, from early CKD all the way to after a transplant, and essentially making ultrasound “intelligent.” How early can we detect a failing kidney? Can we create new measurements of kidney health? Can we simplify kidney ultrasound? In answering these questions, I might be able to advance kidney care for Canadians.
Best of part of my research? I work with a world-class team of healthcare professionals and engineers, work for an amazing group of patients, and work in beautiful British Columbia.
I just completed two years of full-time medical school, so going back to engineering is definitely a nice change of pace. I missed math!
Besides that, my little sister, Krishma, is starting at UBC in Biomedical Engineering this September. It’ll be fun to have family around. Both her and my other sister, Ruby, are loads smarter than I am. I’m excited to see what Krishma does during her time here.
I take small steps every day. I start my mornings off with fresh coffee, some journaling, and reading a few pages of a book out on my deck – just to get my head in a good space for the day. Keeping a semi-regular routine and cutting down on the tidal wave of news has really helped, especially during the more uncertain parts of the pandemic. Ice cream never hurts too. And hey, if all that’s not working? Therapy.
I’m lucky. I moved into a house with three friends from medical school and it’s been a dream. Living with Alex, Nicky, and Jake is probably the best social activity I could ask for – physically distanced or not. Mix in watching classic samurai movies, eating lunch at the beach, and discovering new indie music – you’ve got yourself a recipe for thriving in the pandemic.