1/10th of BMB done!

There is something so visually stimulating about a hypertrophied ventricle. It always achieves the "oh-ah" effect when showing the effects of hypertension on the heart. I remember when I first say the massive left ventricle in a gross pathology section back in cardio and how amazed I was at the heart and its ability to compensate for high blood pressure through growing bigger (like any other muscle in your body that is put under stress).

High school students were just as impressed, when they passed the heart around during the pathology station, a part of the Fifth Annual High School Outreach Conference (HSOC), an interprofessional collaboration between UCSF dental, medical, pharmacy, nursing, physical therapy, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars was held at UCSF on Saturday, April 26.

The outreach conference aims to introduce high school students from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds to careers in health care and science. Participants from high school in San Francisco, Oakland and Northern California attended the conference. The conference featured a diverse array of activities, including hands-on demonstrations and workshops organized by UCSF students.

I was on hand to help out at the conference, donning an over sized orange volunteer shirt. It was great fun to talk about the heart and introduce students to medicine, a topic so close to my heart (no pun intended). The conference concluded with our Med Link graduation. First, the usual game, followed by a slide show of the year, closing remarks and reflections and the graduation.

Graduates received stethoscopes as mementos of their experience in Med Link. My mentee was excited, "My parents may think I am changing from politics to medicine," she said.

I am truly amazed at how the year has gone by so fast. I felt like I was meeting my mentee not so long ago and now she has graduated.

***

We are 1/10th of a way through BMB (Brain Block). It was a great weekend.

A group of medical students were participating in "THE GAME," a scavenger hunt that lasted for 24 hours. I was planning to register, until I realized the game was an all night sort of adventure, meaning no sleep. I spent my Saturday on campus at the conference and Med-Link, followed by a BBQ with fellow MSP leaders.

Sunday was catch-up day (like usual) and the trip to Ocean Beach (by foot) to enjoy all 70 degrees of sunshine goodness.

Here's to hoping for days that allow for flip flops as we move to week 2 of BMB.