After a weekend of settling in and drinking coffee, we woke up bright and early to start the next few days of needs finding. Over the past few days, we’ve been traveling to various hospitals and clinics to perform clinical observations.
On Monday, all of our program went to the electrical engineering building at the University of Costa Rica for a short introduction to clinical needs finding. Afterwards, we got lunch at a soda (mom-and-pop, traditional Costa Rican food) at the university. One thing that I’m learning about sodas is that you can get a huge plate of food for a low price, and it’s always delicious. Following lunch, my group headed over to UCR Facultad de Odontologia (UCR Dentistry) to do our observations for the day. I never considered dental instruments when it came to medical devices, but quickly learned just how many devices are used each day. I saw root canals, crowns being placed, the process of making dentures, and also went on a tour of the labs there. Since most of the staff didn’t speak Spanish, Santiago had to be our translator, and he did a great job! Later on in the evening, I went to Cafe Otoya just down the road for dinner and dessert, and came back to watch the GMI boys do some karaoke at the hostel, which was entertaining.
Tuesday’s clinical location was at the National Hospital of Geriatrics and Gerontology. At the hospital, we were introduced to several medical devices, such as ultrasound machines, ECGs, electromagnetic therapies, endoscopes, and optical lasers. The ECG device was particularly interesting to me just because it uses suction and clips to attach the leads to the patient instead of the electrode pads that are common in US hospitals (pictured!).
ECG machine in Hospital of Geriatrics
I also observed a colonoscopy (where I remembered how squeamish I am), and scrubbed up to see a cataract surgery. Overall, while it was sad to see so many people in poor condition, watching the people and devices that work everyday to help people was fun. For lunch, our observation group headed to a soda near our hostel, where we were accompanied by a (dying?) bird, and headed back to the hostel before the afternoon rain hit. Since it was pouring rain all day, I mostly just hung out at the hostel and started reading some books, which was a nice break.
Today, we had the opportunity to observe surgeries in the OR at Hospital Clinica Biblica. I got to see a breast cancer surgery and a hernia surgery, both of which were really cool to see since I’ve never been in an OR before. Our group was lucky in that we were able to just walk into whichever surgery we wanted to see and rotate throughout them, which is not something we’d be able to do in the US. To finish up the clinical needs finding portion of the week, all of the groups met up at UCR to discuss what we observed over the last few days and how to construct needs statements. These needs statements will be presented at the medical device design boot camp for possible projects, so I am excited to see what other groups have come up with!
Overall, it has been a pretty busy past few days, and they have flown by. I’m looking forward to the medical device boot camp and to spending more time with the people of GMI. Adios!