Bold Science Matters Scholarship

My pancreas doesn’t work. At fifteen, my body attacked its beta cells, rendering me incapable of producing insulin. Because of this, I live with devices constantly attached to me, can’t eat a meal without analyzing its carbohydrate content, and can’t leave the house without toting along a bag of juice boxes, alcohol swabs, and other assorted medical trinkets. Managing my Type 1 Diabetes has never been easy—it’s often felt soul-crushing—but after battling for two years, I am immensely grateful for scientific discoveries that make it more manageable. For any Type 1 Diabetic, monitoring blood glucose levels and injecting insulin accordingly is delicate, tedious, and never-ending. However, science and technology have advanced to the point where people like me can use what’s known as a “bionic pancreas.” It consists of an insulin pump and a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) communicating with each other to help Type 1 Diabetics maintain homeostasis. Based on data received from the CGM, the pump can adjust the amount of insulin it injects. It keeps my blood glucose stable with minimal effort on my part, giving me the freedom to enjoy the moment. To live without constant anxiety about my levels. Acquiring this technology revolutionized my life, turning my Type 1 Diabetes from a swampy muck into a mild inconvenience. That is what science should be. Humans have vast scientific capability, which has enormous potential to be translated into good. Science is about discovery, and what better way to apply those discoveries than by helping others? I adore science and want to spend my life pursuing it, not just because it’s fascinating or because it helped me, but because it can help everyone. And ultimately, that’s our responsibility as humans: to help each other.

My favorite scientific discovery is technology. Norwegian politician, Christian Louis Lange, once said, “Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master.” This quote summarizes how I see technology impacting the world around us in the future. The future of technology in medicine also contains benefits and problems. Robotics will be benefitting patients who are paralysis by enabling neurons to send messages to enable the patient to walk again using robotics. The future of cardiovascular care will be transformed by advances in artificial intelligence, digital health technology and mobile devices as a means to prevent and treat heart disease. Diseases such as diabetes will have better treatments as a looped system for testing glucose and giving insulin are combined into a pump. Brain technology will even be able to rewind diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Cancer may even be treated and cured with the use of artificial intelligence, precision surgery and application of digital sensors to kill cancer cells. Future technological innovation is going to keep transforming healthcare, yet while technologies (new drugs and treatments, new devices, new social media support for healthcare, etc.) will drive innovation, human factors will remain one of the stable limitations of technological breakthroughs. My pathway as a future emergency room physician will be affected by technology tremendously. The process of constant learning as technology advances will make my work more detailed and difficult but also more gratifying as drugs are improved, surgeries become more précised, treatment plans become more individualized and cures are found to improve patient healthcare. The risk of patient information being hacked, the technology not adjusting for individual differences and other obstacles that may arise as technology advances will ensure the physician is still involved in patient care.