University of Washington Medical Center: Seattle, Washington - Dan

Over the past 7 months I have had the incredible opportunity to work with the abdominal transplant team at the University of Washington Medical Center.  My mentor for this internship was Dr. James Perkins, professor of surgery and vice chair of the Department of Surgery.  I worked closely with current Medical Student Ryan Hall in an experiment to risk stratify liver transplant patients with common post-transplant complications.  The study focused on how predictive analytics may be influential in the medical field, being thought of as the sixth element to medical decision making especially with patient handoffs.  The study included a retrospective analysis of 386 orthotopic liver transplant records noting variables such as height, gender, race, anatomical abnormalities, and post-transplant lab work.  Using decision tree analysis, we created a predictive model that risk stratifies records into two of the most common complications after liver transplant.  We proved that predictive analytics can be used in medical decision making as a sixth element, assisting the medical team through patient handoffs.

This internship provided me with the incredible opportunity to work with the abdominal transplant team.  Among my cherished memories from this internship was the opportunity to stand in on a full liver transplant.  I am grateful to those people who helped to provide me with such an unique opportunity.  

I also enjoyed striving for personal goals during my internship, which included understanding and implementing the scientific method.  For a type A personality, it is difficult to experiment knowing failure is a possible outcome.  I had many opportunities to experiment and work with the scientific method.  This didn't always result in statistically significant results, but rather helped me to fine tune my research and come closer to my goal. I learned that my value to the project was based on much more than the outcome of my studies.  

I am again grateful to those at BYU and UW that helped me have such an incredible internship opportunity!