The beginning of my MD/PhD career

Last weekend I went to the 24th annual MD/PhD student conference in Keystone, Colorado. It was a great way to start my training as a physician scientist and meet my new classmates who will probably be my friends and colleagues for life. The conference consisted of talks and poster presentations from other MD/PhD students from all around the country. A few featured speakers were invited also, as well as practicing physician-scientists who held a career panel and chaired break-out sessions on topics such as time and stress management, grant writing, negotiating jobs, etc.

This was different from other conferences I have attended because the science presented came from all different fields, including medical genetics, pharmacology, bioengineering, molecular biology, and cell biology. This exposed me to new areas I may wish to explore further when choosing which labs to rotate in, and ultimately what my own research will involve. I also appreciated the advice and examples of seasoned physician-scientists who spoke at the conference. Most of them described at least one unexpected twist or hurdle they had to overcome in their career and most were not where they thought they would be twenty years earlier. They were very encouraging and suggested that we not pigeon-hole ourselves too soon into what we think we want to do. This was good for me to hear, because sometimes I wish I had a better idea of exactly what I wanted to study and what kind of doctor I wanted to be. It is comforting to know that I have plenty of time to feel everything out and make my decisions. Also, should I decide to make a career shift later in life, as it seems many physician-scientists do, I will be well trained for a variety of different options as an MD/PhD. Interestingly, all of the panelists were married, except one, and all had kids. They gave excellent advice about prioritizing family needs first, sacrificing for family, and balancing their lives. I value their examples as very successful scientists who also seem to succeed in life, including family life.

One of my favorite featured speakers was a psychiatrist and bioengineer named Karl Deisseroth. He was introduced as one of the only people in the world who has integrated these to unlikely disciplines to come up with very exciting potential solutions to neural disorders from narcolepsy to Parikinson's disease. Click here for a brief article on his work. If you have about twenty minutes and want to watch a very cool lecture he gave to a general audience at Stanford, watch this video. He is a model product of an MD/PhD program, uniting cutting-edge research with a clinical specialty to come up with patient-driven solutions. I don't know that I necessarily want to go into psychiatry, neuroscience, or bioengineering, but I admire how he has been able to come up with such clever tools to approach complicated clinical problems in a relatively short period of time.

In addition to serving as a forum for scientific dialoge and career devlopment, the Keystone conference is a social event, particularly for attendees from the University of Colorado. New members of the program are required to attend to meet their class and other members of the program. Mine is the largest MSTP class in the program's history with 10 students. I feel very fortunate to have a wonderful class full of people who are interesting to talk to and easy to get along with. They also care about each member of the group and watch out for eachother already. I look forward to getting to know them even better as the years go by. The upperclassmen from the program were also eager to get to know us new students and to provide helpful tips on how to survive our first year.

Overall the Keystone experience was very rewarding. I feel so blessed to have been given the chance to train both as a medical doctor and a scientist. I hope my education will provide me with skills, experience, and opportunities needed to bridge disparate disciplines to come up with novel solutions to clinical problems as a fulfilling part of a balanced life.

Home Owners!!!

Friday we closed on our house, but not without lots of ups and downs along the way. Thanks to our real estate agent Betty, Chrissy's incredible great Aunt, we closed on time. Every day there were little glitches and things that could potentially have kept the deal from going through on time. Fortunately everything was worked out. Closing was kind of fun...lots of papers to sign. Since Dad wasn't there, I got to sign for him since I had been given limited power of attorney to act on his behalf. This was the sentence I had to sign every time a signature was required on the closing documents: "Clark Thorpe Bishop by Nicholas H. Bishop as his attorney in fact." When initials were required, I got to shorten it to "CTB by NHB as AIF." I almost laughed out loud nearly every time I had to sign it.

Immediately after closing, we drove over to the house to show it to Mom. It was pretty much as we had left it the last time, except the front door locks had been changed and a carbon monoxide detector installed (as per a new law effective July 1). As we were leaving the house, I saw a cute baby snake in our front yard. I was excited, but Chrissy was not amused. Apparently we get them a lot along with rabbits and other wildlife.

Saturday Mom helped us clean the kitchen and unpack a few things from the truck while our new carpet was installed. By the way, it looks great! Then mom helped us get started on our list of home improvement chores by taking me to Home Depot. After our shopping trip, I took her to the Denver International Airport, which is just about 12 miles north of our house. Then I went to pick up our rental piano dolly and arrived back at the house just in time for our Elder's quorum to help me use it. There was a great turnout of about 8 guys who were very nice and helped us get everything either onto the new carpet or into the garage. We put together the bedroom set, returned the piano dolly and the moving van and went to bed! Here's a picture of the beautiful sunset we enjoyed from our porch the first night in our new home:

Church was fantastic yesterday. One of the guys who helped us move is the director of the ward choir, so we showed up 45 minutes early for practice. The couple we sat next to in Sacrament meeting invited us for dinner which was very cool since we weren't exactly put together yet at home. All the members were super friendly and very welcoming. I think we will love our ward. In Elder's quorum, I met one of my classmates named Mike. His wife is just starting a residency in pediatrics and he's just starting med school like me. So I know there will be at least three Mormons in my class, maybe even more.

As we speak they are putting in the laminate wood floor. It looks very nice. When it's all done we'll have to post before and after pictures.

We are so happy in our new home and we feel very blessed that everything has worked out so well thusfar. Now back to all my to-do's...

Welcome to our new blog!

So this is our first adventure as a couple in the world of blogging. Since we are moving next week to Denver we thought we should make a blog to keep in touch with our friends and family. I have nothing profound or witty to say to start off the blog, but I must say I am proud of our blog title. Anyway, welcome to our blog. I hope you enjoy it!