Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, India
My experience at the Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (SRIHER) was an attempt to familiarize myself with a side of medicine that I have heretofore not explored: public health. In an attempt to gain experience in public health, I chose to conduct a preliminary research on Type 2 Diabetes Medication Compliance in a tertiary care center in South India. After choosing my question, I was guided to select the tools appropriate to answer my question effectively. One of the vital portions of this step was translating a questionnaire from English to Tamil through a validated methodology laid out in scientific literature. I was thus able to pick up the nuances of the Tamil language, and taught the general vocabulary needed to specifically ask and record questions and answers. I was then put into the field! This portion of the internship was the most difficult part; not only did we have to remember and put into good use all that we had learned over the past few weeks, we also had to adapt to the situation around us, the resources we had available, and other practical constraints. Nevertheless, I was able to obtain 89 surveys that measured the compliance of Type 2 diabetes patients’ medication compliance. I was then fortunate enough to participate in two esteemed medical research conferences where I prepared the analysis and procedure of my study in both a poster and oral format. I was given invaluable feedback on my project and on my presentation in one of the conferences. I even won 1st prize in the second conference!
Beyond the public health portion of the internship, I also wanted to get a firsthand look at the differences between the healthcare setting in the U.S. and India. I shadowed the Head of Departments of Pathology, Microbiology, Endocrinology, and Oncology. I also accompanied medical students to field work and attended some of their classes. The administration of the college at SRIHER was also curious about the healthcare setting in the United States and the concept of a liberal arts education. I was honored to be requested to present on these topics to raise greater awareness and inform healthcare professionals about opportunities abroad.
Coming from the U.S. to India, I didn’t know what entirely to expect in an Indian hospital setting. I grew up hearing about various malpractice cases that ended up with fatal results and an ever-growing fear of medical negligence and an ignorant notion of the sheer incapability when it came to effectively practicing medicine in places outside of the U.S. However, upon beginning my internship at SRIHER, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only were the physicians down-to-earth and open to spend ample amounts of time teaching students, they were also very humble and cooperative with one another and many times many other departments of medicine they work in tandem with. In a nation defined as a third world country, it was truly amazing to see that an Institution like SRIHER has set up free clinics that function weekly and serve over 18,000 people in rural downtrodden areas. I was able to see the humanity in medicine in the very fabric of medicine practiced at SRIHER.
Coming into this internship, I had only gained wet lab research experience. After leaving SRIHER, my heart is set on public health research and reform. This has allowed me to solidify my plans of concentrating in the public health program at Williams and has begun to play a part in filtering the ample amounts of research available on campus to those that deal almost directly with public health. Furthermore, now that I have found a portion of medicine that I am interested in, I will hope to gain more auxiliary knowledge so as to aid my efforts in public health. For example, I hope to excel in statistics courses as the mathematics behind these courses lies at the very core of public health research.
For the first time in my educational career, I have also begun thinking about taking a gap year between graduating from Williams and matriculating to medical school. I would like to work in a public health setting somewhere abroad during my gap year which will allow me to further my limited knowledge of the field and prepare me to pursue a MD-MPH dual degree program.
If it were not for the generosity of Mr. Chapman and the tireless work of those in the ’68 Center for Career Exploration, the invaluable lessons I learned this summer would not have been possible. Thank you!