Week 8: Nina

This week, I watched a living donor liver transplant and went to clinic in Chinatown. For the transplant, the surgery was done robotically using Da Vinci technology. In clinic, I saw a variety of patients ranging from cases of liver cysts, cancer, potential donors, and follow-ups for post-transplant cases. When I went down to the Chinatown clinic, I saw a variety of cancers, some stemming from Hepatitis B infection, and others without. How translation into one's native language can still pose many challenges to the transfer of information. Appointments without translation can happen within about half of the time required for appointments with a translator. There must be gaps and pauses for the information to be relayed in English then translated into the desired language. However, sometimes the patient or physician has direct responses or reactions to the information in real-time. Yet, this must be delayed to give time for translation. The flow of the conversation can be disrupted, which can cause some confusion for the translator and all parties involved. I also learned that patient willingness to accept treatment can be a large cultural gap. In some cultures, traditional methods of healing or treating disease can vary greatly to the standard of care in the US. Therefore, obstacles with implementing prevention or treatment to patients can sometimes be owed to reluctance of treatment or initial diagnosis. As I will be continuing my collaboration with Dr. Samstein throughout my PhD, we will be discussing more details for our perfusion project. I have yet to obtain patient samples, as there are logistical hurdles that come with using patient-derived samples.