During the summer, I participated in the Summer Undergraduate Research Internship Program (SURIP) through WellSpan. SURIP is an 8-week long program that was recently developed for Biology majors at York College. The purpose of this program is to expose students to the clinical research process and give them the opportunity to conduct and publish their own clinical research project. At the end of the 8 weeks, students present their projects, their experiences, and what they learned to WellSpan staff and YCP faculty. 

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Going into this program, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I had only ever completed lab-based research and didn't fully understand what clinical research entailed (and what could be completed within the 8 week timeframe). I worked with a lot of different people throughout the program: directors Joan Moore and Melissa Schlenker provided support, guidance, resources, and many additional opportunities; Dr. Rahul Kashyap served as our research mentor; and WellSpan research staff Ted Bell, Nicole Libell, and Gabby Rebillard taught us about the clinical research process. 

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As far as my research, there were two separate projects I was working on. The first focused on the role of cannabis-based compounds in treating drug resistant epilepsy (DRE). Initially, I wanted to look at these compounds in treating sleep disorders, but I came across an article related to DRE and was fascinated. For this project, I completed a lot of background research and gathered many articles on clinical trials and observational studies through different databases. There were over 100 articles that I sorted through using Rayyan and the 25-30 articles that were most relevant were used for data collection. In a spreadsheet, I collected basic information on each article such as the study type and location as well as data on the efficacy of CBD in reducing seizures in DRE and the adverse events that were reported. Currently, I am finishing up the analysis and discussion for this project and I am hoping to submit it for publication within the next few months!

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My second project was a case series on Canavan Disease. For this project, I worked on developing the background and discussion sections. The cases we gathered from the WellSpan database had to be written up by a resident due to some of the logistics with the IRB. I am also hoping to finish up this project and submit it for publication within the next few months.

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Aside from research, there were so many other great opportunities I was given through this internship. I was given the chance to do several days of shadowing in areas I was interested in. I spent a significant amount of time shadowing in Pathology at York Hospital as well as some time in Radiology. I also got to shadow a cardiac Watchman Procedure and attend an EMS skills day at the York Fire School (which was definitely one of the highlights!). We observed vehicle extrication demos, met with the WellFlight crew, learned about patient immobilization practices and BLS/ALS equipment, participated in a mass casualty decontamination and triage drill, and practiced skills like intubation, CPR, and IV placement in a moving ambulance (which ended up being my favorite part)! Overall, this internship provided me with so many invaluable experiences that I never would have had otherwise and I am so glad I was able to participate!