Hello everyone! I have wrapped up my 3rd week at Hospital de Amor, which means I am one-third of the way there! On Monday, we spoke with one of our mentors here in the hospital and explained our plan for the rest of our time here in the hospital. In last week’s post, I mentioned that we still didn’t have our finalized project idea and that I would keep you all updated, and we can finally say we know exactly where our efforts will be focused. Since there are so many amazing projects occurring simultaneously, we couldn’t just pick one, so we have picked one main project and a couple of smaller research-based projects.
Our main project involves creating a portable and automated pathology slide station to be used in the hospital’s mobile units. After speaking with doctors, we realized just how large the gap between lesion identification and biopsy processing actually was. Currently, the mobile units go around different cities and perform preventative screenings to identify any pre-cancerous lesions. If a lesion is the patient is referred for a biopsy. The main problem lies in patients who cannot visit the hospital for their biopsy and must rely on their doctors to send their sample to Hospital de Amor for processing. The entire process can take anywhere from a couple of days to weeks, if not longer. Our goal is to not only automate this system but to ensure that all mobile units are equipped with the means to perform on-site biopsies.
Our smaller projects include working with a sub-team of the hospital called Unnwave. They are currently using infrared technology to visualize skin cancer lesions and determine whether or not they are suspicious. One of the things they were interested in was seeing if there are any other light spectra capable of performing the same task, but that perhaps highlight other key features relevant to the diagnosis. Now we are performing a deep dive into other light spectra to see if there have been any interesting applications. We are also looking at technology-forward solutions to ensure under-represented communities are still receiving preventive breast cancer screenings.
Overall, this week was a really short and quick week. This past Thursday and Friday, Brazilians all across the country took 2 days off to observe Corpus Christi, a Catholic holiday that celebrates the Eucharist. Saturday and Sunday were also pretty chill days. On Saturday, we spent the day with one of our co-workers. She made the most delicious Feijoada, meaning I’m one step closer to trying all of the most traditional brazilian cuisine.
As relaxing as this 4 day weekend was I am super excited to get back to work!