Sunday, April 27, 2014

Turning the corner on cancer research



I've been pretty explicit of late about my waning interest in a cancer research career. And it's amazing for me to contemplate how much my opinion about this field has changed following a brief stint at one of the leading cancer research institutions in the world. In short, the search for a "cure" for cancer is the cruellest of oxymorons EVER. The fact is simply that in a strongly capitalistic society, profit will ALWAYS trump ANY motivation to prevent deaths from a disease like cancer when there are literally BILLIONS being made from folks being treated for cancer. And perhaps it was my naivety about how the real world works that has led to such a huge disappointment or maybe it's my stint in "death pharma" that did it, or perhaps it's been the seemingly impossible task of finding a cancer research groups that "sticks". The bottom line for me now is that I think it's time for me to make a permanent turn to some other area of research, and the rotation I had in the clinical trials department of a major cancer center last week pretty much sealed the deal for me.

I've also talked a lot these past few months about cardiovascular research and given that FAR more people, especially women, succumb to cardiovascular disease than cancer and this disease tends to have FAR better outcomes, this feels like it could be a good personal and professional fit. And put in the context of my strong interest in EM/Informatics, things could work VERY well in the long run. It's just overwhelming to think of all the knowledge I've gained studying cancer for the past 10 years that must now be supplanted with learning a completely different disease process. But the fact is that all the knowledge in the world is useless if I'm never given the opportunity to put it to work.

Honestly, it's overwhelming to think of where to begin, but I'll do a combination of sending "cold emails" to PI's doing research of interest, attending rounds in EM and IM/Cardiology, and reading related journal articles. Looking at things from the outside, I think a project combining EM, Informatics, cardiovascular disease, and health disparities could touch on ALL my current interests right now. But the "how" of how all this will come together is what's so "up in the air", it feels like it's past Pluto, LOL!!!

Movin' on, I've started my MCAT review beginning with the biological sciences since a couple of my clients are preparing for their AP Biology exams next month. And since this is an area of great strength for me, it sounds like a great way to get back into MCAT mode. And in the spirit of keeping it real, I'm supremely concerned about the stats being more likely that my score will go down than up especially since I've already experienced that some years back. I'm just betting that the MCAT tutoring I've done in the two years since I took the exam will trump any statistical chances of my scores going down. We'll see.


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