Ohn Chow (ohnchow@yahoo.com)

Graduate Program:  Biomedical Sciences
Lab PI: Victor Nizet, Christopher Glass
Undergraduate Institution: Cornell University
Med-into-Grad clinical training area: Infectious Disease (non-viral)
Main clinical mentors:  Joe Vinetz jvinetz@ucsd.edu
Sharon Reed slreed@ucsd.edu, Don Guiney dguiney@ucsd.edu

Quote:  “I would recommend Med-Into-Grad for anyone interested (or potentially-interested) in medical research. In my experience, I found that I gained greater understanding of the types of problems faced by physicians in a clinical setting. Furthermore, I realized how little I actually knew about clinical medicine and the considerations that go into treating disease. Ultimately, this experience changed the way I think about and approach research problems”.

Rationale for Med-inito-Grad training:
Medical Training and Identification of medically-relevant research issues:
Training in diagnostics & therapeutics, and identification of unmet diagnostic & therapeutic needs:
Diagnostic, therapeutic, and Research collaborations:
Long term impact.:
Advice for new trainees--Autumn preparatory quarter:
Advice for new trainees--Winter clinical training quarter:
Take home perspective on Med-into-Grad at UCSD:

Rational for Med-into-Grad training: 
Going into Med-Into-Grad, my thesis research focused on the transcriptional response of macrophages to bacterial infections as mediated by nuclear receptors. I chose to participate in Med-Into-Grad because I felt that my understanding of clinical issues was severely lacking, relative to my understanding of basic science. My interest was, and continues to be, the development of treatments for infectious diseases. It would have been difficult to meaningfully pursue this without first having a basic understanding of clinical manifestations and treatments of infectious diseases.

Medical training and identification of medically-relevant research issues: 
I attended morning microbiology rounds, afternoon clinical rounds, weekly medical grand rounds and weekly infectious disease grand rounds. Together, these activities helped me gain an introduction into clinical medicine and helped me better appreciate the complexities associated with patient presentation, diagnoses, and treatment. The greatest insight that I gained from my clinical training is that there is no single “most important research area” in clinical medicine. Diagnoses, treatments, and epidemiology all play separate, but equally-important roles in improving human health.
           
Research collaborations:
I did not identify any direct collaborations, although I have asked two of my attending physicians to participate in my thesis committee.

Long term impact: 
My clinical training has pushed me towards more clinically-relevant research. Prior to Med-Into-Grad, my research interests were focused more on understanding the basic science underlying disease. I am now more interested in pursuing clinically-relevant research that will (or may) ultimately have clinical relevance. In line with this, I plan to go medical school when I have completed my Ph.D.

Training in diagnostics & therapeutics, and identification of unmet diagnostic & therapeutic needs:  It would be very difficult to acquire an in-depth understanding of infectious disease diagnostics and therapeutics in the three-month period of this program. However, I believe that I gained a better understanding of the problems and limitations of many of the most commonly-used therapeutics and diagnostic methods, which could allow me to design better methods in the future.

Advice for new trainees--Autumn preparatory quarter:
Most importantly, you should speak with your Med-Into-Grad advisor as early as possible. This way, you can get a better idea as to how you should be preparing for you immersion. With regards to preparatory classes, I would highly recommend gaining a basic understanding of human anatomy. I found this to be my greatest weakness in the clinic, especially when looking at CT scans and MRIs.

Advice for new trainees—Winter clinical training quarter:
Be outgoing. I gained my most valuable clinical insights from talking with fellows, residents, and attending physicians about diagnoses, treatments, disease manifestations, etc. Since they have plenty of other things to do, it is up to you to approach them.

Take home perspective on Med-into-Grad at UCSD: 
I would recommend Med-Into-Grad for anyone interested (or potentially-interested) in medical research. In my experience, I found that I gained greater understanding of the types of problems faced by physicians in a clinical setting. Furthermore, I realized how little I actually knew about clinical medicine and the considerations that go into treating disease. Ultimately, this experience changed the way I think about and approach research problems.