Ahmed Farid

Something I've always been passionate about since my initial introduction to medicine is to give back to communities that I personally grew up in, these communities include: Immigrants, Low SES, and disadvantaged communities. Prior to medical school, I would always reflect on the idea of how I plan to come back to the communities that raised me and be able to serve them. Near West - the free clinic gave me the opportunity to start working toward that initiative early on during my medical training. My first shift was a week into my first year of medical school. I was terrified, but also very grounded as I was surrounded by second and third-year students who were stellar in terms of their abilities to interview patients and begin the process of synthesizing plans to take care of their patients.

In March of my second year of medical school, after gathering and organizing the information from my research fellowship from the summer, my fellow medical student colleagues and I were able to create an abstract and submit it to the IAS in order to present our findings to members of the IAS. After our abstract was accepted, we presented our findings to fellow scientists in the state of Indiana, and reflected on what the next steps should be in terms of furthering understanding of water contamination in the city of Indianapolis, and what measures can be taken to reduce the amount of contamination.

After the completion of my first year of medical school, I knew I wanted to get involved in research, but I wanted to get involved in a project that readily impacts the community in which I was living. Dr. Samina Akbar, a microbiologist who teaches the microbiology course at Marian University Wood-COM, was amidst a project that looked at the local water supply for the center of downtown Indianapolis, IN, and studied that water supply for any microorganisms.

During the summer, a few fellow medical students and I went to White River, a body of water near our school, and collected a few liters of water. Afterwards, we filtered the water using different sizes of filtration systems to extrapolate bacteria. With the bacteria that were collected, we grew those isolated colonies on MacConkey Agar and tested for antibiotic resistance. This experience was eye-opening to me personally because, even I, prior to this experience, would just run tap water without critically thinking about whether that water was safe or not. I think this study was very helpful in terms of identifying potential contaminations of the water supply and starting a movement to be more conscious about the water we consume.

Prior to my employment as a scribe, I was able to connect with patients before their appointments as a volunteer at Karmanos Cancer Center. As a scribe, I was able to appreciate the realistic perspective on the day-to-day work life of a physician in a sensitive field. I was exposed to many clinical treatments for cancer, and etiologies. Oncology opened up a different view of patient care to me in that there is more to it than just treating patients with medicine. It's a commitment to serve and do what is in the best interest of a patient's quality of life.

During my undergraduate studies, I always wanted to pursue research, but I didn't rush the process and choose a lab I wasn’t passionate about. After taking the organic chemistry course 2, I was engaged in the process of synthesizing different medications. Working alongside Dr. James Bour, I had the opportunity to work on a project dealing with artificial intelligence. Oxygen carriers using fully organic material. Tying in the knowledge I learned in biochemistry, I enjoyed the process of trying to synthesize a molecule that could eventually serve as a medical therapeutic.

As a biology lab assistant, I worked on preparing biology labs, as well as mentoring underclassmen. Aside from preparing solutions, having the responsibility of mentoring underclassmen was a privilege. Once an underclassman, I remember.

Seeking help from upperclassmen mentors on how to study for lab courses. One experience I had was when a student mentioned how they were struggling with writing lab reports, and I was able to give them a few pointers, which motivated them to take a more strategic approach with their lab report.

After working on my research project for over two years, I had the privilege of presenting my findings at the ACS Research Conference in San Diego. During my time in San Diego, I was able to learn about different concentrations of chemistry during poster presentations. During my poster presentation, I conversed with a chemistry professor from the University of Texas about my project. He mentioned that he has also been working on oxygen radical systems. Hearing the approach to his lab, it was an interesting idea that my PI and I hadn't thought of.

Taking the knowledge I learned from previous clinical experiences, Dr. Aquiler allowed me to consult with patients and try to come up with a HPI that can be expanded upon after her own patient consultation. Doing so, I got an idea of what it feels like to interact with a patient, in hopes of coming up with a differential diagnosis, and further narrowing it down to the one diagnosis. Alongside patient consultation, being able to do the associated lab work with patients by drawing blood and other tasks.

Interventions furthered my understanding of what goes on beyond a patient encounter.

As a volunteer at Karmanos Cancer Center, I had the opportunity to converse with patients undergoing chemotherapy. Cancer can be approached from a positive or negative aspect, depending on how a patient perceives it. After conversing with one of the patients who suffers from breast cancer, they mentioned that after their diagnosis, they felt more motivated than they ever had in life to achieve the goals they had been putting on hold. Learning about her experiences really motivated me to never take anything for granted, and to pursue the goals I have set out for myself.

As a first clinical experience, working as a scribe taught me what it truly meant to be a doctor. Working alongside Dr. Yusuf, I learned a lot about the anatomy of the human body in a real-world situation. There was an instance in which a patient presented to the ED with a lesion on his right shin, and Dr. Yusuf taught me the difference between a fibula and a tibia. It's one thing to learn anatomy in a college course, but being able to see a real.

The world example and connecting it to medicine, which eventually led to a diagnosis, was a different experience.