Today was my last day at Southern Dermatology with Dr. Boyse and her two nurses. We had a full schedule with the morning consisting of skin checks, freezing off warts, and other general dermatology. But one of the most exciting cases was using the profractional laser machine (shown below). Basically what this machine does is laser tiny holes to produce collagen and new skin on your face. The machine can be set to different strengths and depths in your skin, so if you really wanted to you could laser off all of the skin on your face and produce new skin. The first time is was used today was to help get rid of a very large pre-cancerous spot. The second time was later in the afternoon (where Dr. Boyse does more cosmetic procedures) where a lady got her whole face done (only on 11% thought) to help reduce aging. It was super cool to see how the laser made tin little holes without any needles. It was also interesting to see Dr. Boyse do it, since the laser only covers a small box area at the time so she had to line it up correctly all over the face to make sure all the areas of skin where covered. Also in the afternoon she did some Botox and some fillers such as lip fillers. This was a great week with Dr. Boyse, seeing both general and cosmetic dermatology and also seeing mohs and excision procedures with Dr. Chalgren!!
Tag: 18CarolineS
Day 7-Day of Surgery!
Today I was with Dr. Chalgren since it was Dr. Boyse’s day off, and we did different types of procedures, including surgery under local anesthetic! We started the morning with mohs surgery on 5 patients, which took up the whole morning. Mohs surgery (as shown above) is when part of the cancerous skin is removed, but only to a certain extent (since there is no reason to take our more skin than necessary) , and then this skin is then taken, cured, looked at under the microscope. Then if the microscope shows roots of cancer then you go back and take more out, but if its clear then you sew the patient up with stitches and let them go! This was super cool to see, because it was done on different parts of the body (face, back, arm, and more) on different patients. It was also interesting to see that some patients where clear on the first round but it took on patients 3 rounds to be clear of cancer. Also Dr. Chalgren showed me to close the patient properly to minimize scaring you have to extend the incision a little bit, since the incision is a circle (since the two types of cancers removed with procedure are circular), you have to extend to be more of an eclipse shape so it can be sewn together in a linear fashion. Luckily he was very efficient with his time so we were done with all 5 patients by noon, so we got a nice long lunch. Like monday, a drug representative brought in lunch for the office, so that was nice. Then after lunch i watched Dr. Chalgren do more removals but this time he just took out the problem area and closed it up! Today was very different than the last two days, but I enjoyed it a lot, and thought it was fascinating! 
Day 6- Second Day at Southern Dermatology
Today was my second day at Southern Dermatology with Dr. Boyse and her two nurses, Shelby and Deanna who i got to know better the second day. Like yesterday i spent the day shadowing Dr. Boyse and going to see all her patients. Like yesterday we saw everything from eczema to acne to rashes, and i saw her take some more skin to biospy like yesterday. Today though her nurses explained to me how the measure out and get the Botox ready for Dr. Boyse, since yesterday she explained to me why she puts certain Botox where. They use a certain amount of units for different places on the skin, so the nurses get different syringes ready and place it on the correct place on the face map (shown below) where she needs to insert it, so it’s easy for her to go and do it quickly. The also explained to me after a while with Botox some people don’t see the same results so they use a different brand called Dysport. I also heard alot of Dr. Boyse talking about suncreen so explained to me that the best sunscreen is that with zinc oxide in it. Also anything above spf 50 is mostly made up of chemicals so its not great for your skin or the environment. Tomorrow is Dr. Boyse’s day off so I will spend the day with Dr. Chalgren and Shelby watching procedures, I cant wait! 
Day 5- First Day At Southern Dermatology
Today was my first day at Southern Dermatology with Dr. Boyse! We started the day at 8:30 and ended around 5, but had 1.5 hour lunch break. Throughout the day we saw over 41 different patients! I saw a variety of things from Molluscums (water warts) to cysts, and even saw Dr. Boyse remove some moles or other various skin to later by biopsied to see if it is cancerous. I also saw Dr. Boyse do a good amount of Botox on people which explain to me how it worked and why you put botox certain places to do certain things. She even pulled of the muscle anatomy of the face and showed me in which muscles she places the Botox for certain patients. At lunch time, a drug representative brought in the lunch for the office which i was informed by the nurses happens often. Then after lunch I saw more full body checks, where they make sure there is nothing concerning, a large cyst be popped (like Dr. Pimple Popper), and many other fascinating
cases! I can’t wait until tomorrow.
Day 4- Last day at RTI
Today I spent my last day in the lab for a majority of the time which i loved. I started the morning aliquoting. Basically it’s taking a simple of a solution that was used in the trial and pipette a small sample around 2 ml and putting it in a small vile to keep while the containers used in the trial is sent off to the lab. I did this for all the trials used before they were sent to the lab. Afterwards I had time to finish up my mini project that was i doing this week, a powerpoint full of images to show the women in africa to explain and get their opinions and thoughts on the device. Then we went to lunch we talked about our weekend plans. Afterwards I went back to the lab and was taught how to properly dispose of non-regulated liquid waste, and then I helped dispose of a large amount of this waste. Lastly I pippetted some samples into a quartz dish with lots of little wells that would inserted into a device that uses UV spectroscopy to record the concentration of the drug in the solution that was released by the device placed in this solution to mimic a real person. Afterwards I debriefed with Dr. Rothrock about my week at RTI and showed/sent her my presentation that she would later use. I had an amazing week at RTI learning about what they do as a company, learning about the cool project that Dr. Rothrock and her team is working on, and getting to work in the labs! It was a fantastic experience. 
^ Me pipetting solution into the quartz plate to be placed in the uv spectrophotometer
Day 3- Lab Fun
The day started off in the lab with Natalie, which was super cool. We first were in the lab I have been working in where she showed me an instrument used to measure degradation at different temperatures, and measure certain points such as full degradation among others. This machine can go up to 900 degrees Celsius, so it can measure many different temperatures. The machine is connected to a computer and has its own program so you program it to do different things in terms of temperature. So for the project she’s working on now, Natalie set it to increase 10 degrees C every minute until it gets to 800 degrees C. To start Natalie put the little platinum dish in the machine and tared it, and then added about 8 mg of the polymer we were testing. The machine then did its thing and we left it to run, since it takes around 2 hours. While it was running the program on the computer was collecting real time data so we could see the amount of the polymer degrading. Afterwards we went to another building to go into another lab with a different instrument she was going to show me how to use. This machine quantifies the amount of crystalline vs amorphous material that makes up the substance. She also explained to me how different amount of amorphous material can effect if the solid is brittle or soft, and how this affects is first order transition and the amount of energy that is needed/ released from this reaction. We also discussed other types of endo/exothermic reactions, which was interesting since I could see a concept I learned in chemistry this year come into play in the real world. After teaching me how to use this machine and getting to use a really cool massing device (that had 5 sig figs in mg!) we went back the other building and i got some time work on a mini project i got assigned and do some reading. I got settled in my very own office and started working on the project- to make a power point of pictures explaining how the device works, to show to focuses groups of women in Africa to get their opinions and suggestions. During this time I also did some additional reading on the project and looked at some other presentations. Afterwards it was time for lunch, so I went with Alice, Natalie, and Valeria (all on the project), and we talked about the project but also got to know each other better. Then after lunch I got to go in the lab again! This time I was working with Pafio. He taught me how they use a spectrophotometer, the measure the amount of drug in the buffer solutions. I got to pipette some buffers into the dish, put it in the sectrophotometer, analyze the data, and learn how they clean it. Afterwards I helped Pafio make some buffer solutions they would need for tomorrow. So i just put 100 ml of a solution with a pH of 7.4 that was made up of various chemicals with 900 ml of water that is even more pure than DI water!! I made about 8, 1 L bottles of solutions. Afterwards I got a little more time to work on my project. Overall I got to spend lots of time in the lab and learn about new instruments which i loved!! I can’t wait for tomorrow. 
Day 2
Today was my second day at RTI International and I stated the day off with a meeting with around 25 RTI employees from around the country to discuss and strategize about global health. Everyone discussed what they did at RTI and the different projects they have worked on, and it was very interesting to hear all the different things RTI covers from biostatistics to epidemiology. After they explained what every section did and what they were currently working on, the group discussed different foundations and grants. Since RTI is a non profit they rely on government spending and grants. This was an all day meeting, however, I left after this part since I was going to do work in the lab. After I ate lunch I went to the lab and pipetted different buffer solutions that would later be sent to a lab to analyze. I pipetted 2 ml of each solutions into a 2 ml vile using an 1000 micro liter pipettor. Over all, it was a great day having been able to sit in on a meeting and do lab work!!
Day 1- First Day at RTI!
Today was my first day at RTI located in RTP working with Dr. Ginger Rothrock! Although the traffic was a little heavier than my usual commute to 1600 N Harrison avenue and I may or may not have gotten lost on the way, it was a great day! I started the day off by talking to Dr. Rothrock about what RTI does and more specifically the project she’s working on right- a HIV insert-able prevention device. It was really interesting to learn about how RTI works with to improve global health in a variety of ways in terms of applied science. After she explained RTI’s general mission and the specifics of the project, she gave me some information to read from preparation for tomorrow’s all day meeting. After reading we went to go get me a badge so i could get into the building. The we went to lunch at RTI’s new cafeteria, and talked more about the all day meeting on Wednesday- where a group of people from around the country will come together to discuss global health and its agenda. After lunch I got to go into the lab with Natalie and Alice, who are both working on the case. They showed and explained to me the device in which they are working to develop. Then they even let me try to make one of my own! But instead of the drug I used coffee creamer which is a similar consistency. Then they showed and explained to me the data so far and how they collected it-which was very cool. It was really interesting to see some of the concepts and methods I learned in chem being used. I can’t wait for the week to come!