Pura Vida! – Week 1

Wow! What a first week in Costa Rica it has been! The first week was exciting, informative, and exhausting, and overall gave me a greater understanding of the Costa Rican healthcare system and how it compares to that of the US.

After arriving late Saturday evening, the GMI students and I took Sunday to unwind, relax, and explore the Cariari area where we will be living for a total of 10-weeks. The rest of the week consisted mostly of visits to different hospitals around Costa Rica to meet with various physicians and hospital staff to discuss and evaluate any needs present. Needs finding, in the scope of biodesign and medical technology, is the practice of observing real world clinical settings to search for any difficulties or obstacles healthcare professionals or patients may be encountering (Biodesign: The Process of Innovating Medical Technologies). 

These observations, aside from providing insight into the Costa Rican healthcare system and the medical care available, gave me and the other GMI students great practice in learning how to find needs. For anyone interested in biodesign or design of medical technology, needs finding should always be the first step in order to evaluate if a problem truly exists. Without defining what the problem or need is, one cannot begin the process of brainstorming, prototyping, innovating, etc.

On Thursday morning, Luis Diego Gené (another GMI student) and I were able to visit the Boston Scientific site in Heredia where we will both be working this summer. It was great to meet our HR contact, as well as a number of the manufacturing engineers whom we will work alongside throughout the next 9 weeks. Although it was a just a brief visit, it has made me even more excited to start work at Boston Scientific tomorrow (Monday 6/13/2016)!!

Thursday afternoon the GMI students traveled to Cartago with Dr. Richardson to visit the Costa Rica Institute of Technology (or TEC, as it is often referred to). At TEC, we listened to presentations of medical technology projects from a few engineering students from all disciplines, from Mechatronics Engineering to Industrial Engineering. After the presentations, we had lunch with a number of the students on campus, and then were given a great brief tour of Cartago by Jorge Lizano and Guiselle Esquivel, two TEC students who participated in a short design course with the GMI students and Dr. Richardson last summer. After four weeks of our internships, we will take a one week break from work to participate in the same short course later this summer.

Lastly, on Saturday, we visited La Paz Waterfalls for some well-deserved tourism! La Paz Waterfalls is a beautiful wildlife refuge and natural waterfall garden high up in hills of the Alajuela province. This was a perfect way to see the beautiful nature of Costa Rica and have some fun after the long, busy week we had.

After a great first week in Costa Rica, I am so looking forward to starting my internship at Boston Scientific this week, and can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer has in store! One week down, nine more to go!