week of 12/10 - 12/16

This week my Original Work was due, was one of the most dreaded weeks in ISM, a close third to that of the Final Product due date and Final Presentation Night. Though I had been working on my project for several months and was more than capable of getting it done on time, Friday (the official Original Work due date) was still stressful nonetheless. Additionally, Original Work accounts for 6 major grades, so performance on it essentially determines 50% of our 6 weeks grade. Not to worry, I turned it in on Friday with hours to spare and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.

I would like to take this opportunity to explain in detail what my Original Work is and how it turned out. The purpose of my Original Work was to evaluate a case series of concomitant robotic hysterectomy and sleeve gastrectomy, proving its feasibility. As my mentor is the only surgeon who performs this combined surgery to date, he wants this information to be brought to the attention of the minimally-invasive surgical community. Therefore, this case-series will greatly benefit the medical community, as it attests to the practicality of performing combined robotic procedures.

My Original Work has turned my mentor’s thoughts into reality, officially documenting his unique combined procedure. While the paper has not yet completed the publishing process, it will soon be available in a prominent medical journal. Surgeons will now be able to recognize the benefits and feasibility of combining two surgeries with incredibly different results, a new feat for robotic medicine.