Hey BME 301 Students –

I had such a great time in class today. I hope you enjoyed the review session! Congratulations to the four students who were willing to sit in the “hot-seat”. I have posted all of the slides from today so that you can use the questions to review for the final exam.

I really enjoyed reading your responses to HW 10 and to the extra credit assignment on Love in the Driest Season. I thought I would share some of my favorite responses – you are an inspiring group of students!

See you at the final exam (May 18^th, 9-12); RRK

It’s hard to believe that I am only two months away from receiving my bachelors of science in human biology and only this past semester have I learned about cancer. Throughout my four years at UT, I’ve been searching for an area of biology to study in graduate school and I’ve finally found what I’ve been looking for: I’ve decided I’d like to study cancer genetics. I hope to make the study and research of cancer genetics my career not only because it fascinates me but because I hope to improve world health. I am looking forward to joining the research community and I hope that I will be able to contribute myself to the research endeavors that may one day drastically improve the lives of cancer patients.

This summer I will participate in a hospital administration fellowship at Johns Hopkins Health System. I hope to maintain a more efficient, yet humanitarian system of care resourcing as I pursue a career path in hospital leadership and local health care policy.

An important factor that I learned in this class and will use in the future to improve world health is the significance of participation in clinical trials. If there should ever be an opportunity where my participation in a current trial would be advantageous for a new technology, I believe I would greatly consider partaking in it.

Reading Neely Tucker’s Love in the Driest Season in class really inspired me and reinvigorated my faith in the hopeful, redemptive powers of writing. I do not have hopes of a journalistic career, rather intending to write fiction in short story and novel form, but I think the same messages can be conveyed in either form of writing. Namely, the ideas of redemption and endless human optimism, which is a vital component of the mission to improve world health and awareness of the third world and its many problems. It starts with the smallest actions, I believe the most personal, human actions.

I have wanted to work in health care in a developing country since I visited Nepal in 2001. This class helped me understand how difficult it can be to ensure that children in a developing country receive their immunizations. If I am able to go back to Nepal as a health care provider, I would like to work with some development agencies to design a program to help children receive their immunizations.

I will try to inform the people I know about the benefit of vaccines. I think this class has shown that vaccines are the most effective prevention technology available and it is important to encourage those around me to be educated about vaccines.

The chain is only as strong as its weakest link; a society is only as strong as it weakest citizens. This class put the inequality in healthcare in perspective. I hope that I may one day join Doctors Without Borders so that I may lend a helping hand to someone in their time of need.

As a Mexican American Studies major we often learn about many different issues that affect Latinos here in the United States. From what I learned in BME 301, I have thought about making Latinos more aware of the serious dangers of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure and high cholesterol and the treatments available to them.

There are quite a few “neglected diseases”, so named because they are neglected by pharmaceutical companies. Profit lies in treating diseases that primarily affect citizens of the developed world. I am hoping to receive my masters in public health and then to continue on to receive a degree in pharmacy administration and policy. With the two disciplines combined, I would hope to address the issue of neglected diseases.