In my younger years, I dreamed that I would go into research and, one day, discover cures for some of the biggest medical issues of humanity. As I grew up, I recognized that an implicit part of my dream was to aid others through my work, and that obtaining comprehensive medical knowledge would be critical to achieving my goal. While seeking that knowledge, I discovered that medicine had so much more to offer than just information, and I realized that medicine would play a major role in my desired future. This is not the story of a typical aspiring doctor, but rather the path of a boy’s discovery of what truly matters to him.
During my childhood, I was greatly inspired by my father, a scientist at the National Cancer Institute, and when he described
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Yes, doing research was intellectually rewarding, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling that something critical was absent. After attending several clinical seminars hosted by the NIH Clinical Center, I noticed a sharp distinction between the patient-oriented clinical research and academic basic research. Ruminating on this discrepancy, I realized that my research at Dr. Yang’s lab was vastly distant from any direct clinical application, and I finally understood what I was missing. At the end of all of this research, I just wanted to help and improve people’s lives, and although I knew that research would gradually do so, I greatly desired to have my work also provide immediate …show more content…
Although proposals typically mention potential applications of the research, often, very little translation is done and the information is lost amongst a sea of published articles. With my own experience in conducting research, I further realized that even if researchers wanted to translate their results into treatments, they often lacked the detailed understanding of the human body that is necessary to do so. I understood that, in order to pursue my dream, a thorough knowledge of medicine and all of its intricacies was essential. With this in mind, I sought out opportunities to become involved with medicine and was accepted into the Stepping Stones shadowing program. As I observed various physicians and medical professionals through their day, I was awed by the depth of their medical knowledge and the ease with which they applied that knowledge to address each patient’s medical issues. At the same time, I was also struck by the manner through which the doctors communicated their knowledge to the patients to educate them and improve their