Before I even arrived, I discovered I had been assigned to Dr. John Kennedy, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in foot and ankle maladies. This would have been great, if I had not already known he will be absent for the majority of the Summer. I had initially been assigned to him, but I was under the false impression I had been reassigned at some point. In any case, I arrived at his office for a scheduled meeting at 7 AM sharp on Monday morning, only to discover he was going over the final details of an ensuing surgery. After maybe two minutes of interaction, the team departed for the operating room, and I was not to join them. In fact, it appeared that none of my paperwork had been processed by HSS, and there was an underlying assumption that I was there for research purposes only, sans OR access. Additionally, Dr. Kennedy left for South Africa after the surgery, with an expected return on Tuesday the 16th. His assistant informed me that the research team was concurrently away at a conference in France, not to return until Thursday the 11th.
So here I was, with apparently no clearance at all, instructed to wait until Thursday before I could even start researching. Needless to say, I was a bit perplexed, but I was hesitant to raise the alarm, since I had no sense of how the opening week typically plays out for Immersion students, especially at HSS. I got my ID for NYPH, but I had no idea what that qualified me to do, and I didn't feel comfortable tagging along with someone else when I seemed to be in clearance limbo. So I took the two days for my own kind of immersion into the local neighborhood. I spent a few hours in Central Park, meandering through the Ramble. I explored the northern stretch of the Upper East Side on Tuesday, and the southern stretch of the Upper East Side on Wednesday. I walked up and down the avenues, with no real destination in mind. It was quite interesting and somewhat entertaining, but it was not the immersion experience I had envisioned for the Summer. I was itching to get started.
Once Thursday arrived, I returned to Dr. Kennedy's office and attempted to straighten out the bureaucratic matters. I discovered my documents had been forwarded to Robert Wurzburger, but never signed by Dr. Kennedy; I will have to wait for him to return on Tuesday before rectifying this. He only has two surgeries scheduled for this month: Wednesday the 17th and Monday the 22nd, at which point he departs for the entire month of July. My initial suspicions had been confirmed; I simply will not have anywhere near sufficient interaction with his surgical team over the course of the term because of a lack of scheduled events.
Meanwhile, I started delving into the literature, trying to glean what I could with regard to the physiology of the ankle joint and the surgical techniques involved in the repair of osteochondral lesions of the talus. Youichi Yasui, a key member of the research team, has proposed a systematic review of the existing approaches for treatment of subchondral lesions; this could potentially be publishable. It's an interesting topic where I would be learning by the seat of my pants, but it doesn't address the core issue. I feel it was known beforehand that this pairing would be awkward as a result of Dr. Kennedy's unavailability for most of the term, but I was shoehorned in anyway because of logistics. I know my research with Dr. Cosgrove doesn't imply a natural clinical partner, but I'd be open to almost any type of clinical exposure, as long as there was, you know, actual exposure. My understanding is the primary focus of the Immersion experience is the surgical exposure, and the track this is following implies otherwise. It's nothing against Dr. Kennedy; I liked talking to him in the brief time we had. I just have doubts as to whether it makes sense logistically. I'm not sure if I want to wait until Tuesday for him to return before exploring alternative paths. I'm meeting at 7 AM on Monday with Youichi to discuss this possible review article, but if I'm ultimately going in a different direction, I'm wondering if I should fully attach myself to this research idea.
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