Gann Goes to Harvard Medical School

 

 

Students in all “Anatomy and Physiology” blocks, taught by Mr. Wilkins or Science Teacher Laila Goodman, had the opportunity to visit Harvard Medical School’s MEDscience program, an interactive medical science experience for high schoolers. Students act as a cohort of doctors, teaming up to save patients in the “emergency room” from all sorts of ailments.  

 

The students will meet with MEDscience four times throughout the course, twice in person and twice virtually. At the first visit on Monday, students learned how to check patient vitals—like heart rate, temperature, and oxygen saturation—and administer IVs using a training tool. They learned all the steps in the process, from attaching the needle and medical syringe, to insertion in a simulated vein. 

 

From there, they handled a real-world case study. Students treated a patient with shortness of breath, chest pain, and low blood pressure. “They had to use this information to come up with a ‘differential diagnosis,’ or all the possible things that could be contributing to this person’s symptoms,” said Mr. Wilkins. The students ordered tests and studied an x-ray of lungs to diagnose their patient with a heart attack and lungs full of fluid. From there, they ordered medications to help fix these problems.  

 

In this program, and in the class, students spend most of their time doing real-world case studies and learning intense medical skills. Mr. Wilkins emphasized the importance of taking their learning off the page into key scenarios: “The case study method is what makes this course so unique, and it’s a great way to apply the knowledge students have.” 

 

This is an incredible and rare opportunity for high schoolers to really start exploring the medical industry and discover new passions in the medical field!