UCLA Journal of Radiation Oncology SUMMER 2024 - Flipbook - Page 57
UCLA RADIATION ONCOLOGY JOURNAL
flight surgeons and engineers developing a
probabilistic risk assessment tool, which will
help in planning longer and more complicated
missions with higher medical risks. Travelling
to Johnson Space Center and Mission Control
was an unforgettable way to feel tiny in the midst
of enormous spacecraft and the gravity of the
history that pervades the grounds.
E: Before medical school, you taught middle
school science—an admirable profession. What
will you take from your experience as a middle
school science teacher into your residency?
N: Teaching science was a great exercise in
breaking things down to the basics. You have
to reverse engineer these big concepts that
might be second nature to you by now, then
reconstruct them in terms that will be familiar
to students. You have to lead them in a logical
manner—it doesn't really matter if they can
identify "the powerhouse of the cell" until they
grasp the properties that make a cell a cell—and
assess whether they are following, adapting
your strategy as you advance. This has helped
me during goals-of-care discussions to be more
sensitive to where patients and families are in
their understanding. A huge draw for radiation
oncology for me was helping patients wrap their
heads around this esoteric treatment modality
and be able to make a more informed decision.
Many of the countermeasures that were
developed for spaceflight have found important
applications for life on Earth. That's why I want
to do research on particle radiation that will
benefit astronauts as well as cancer patients.
Last year, NASA launched a space radiation
curriculum, and I was ecstatic to join the
inaugural class. We met amazing professionals
from all sorts of backgrounds as we learned
the nuances of space radiation. In October, a
few of us will travel to New York to complete
a practicum at the NASA Space Radiation
Laboratory (NSRL), where their particle
accelerators can replicate the space radiation
environment to run studies like nowhere
else on Earth (literally). As UCLA is moving
toward developing its own Space Medicine
Institute, I am hoping to apply what I learn in a
collaboration here, and maybe even run a study
at NSRL during my PGY4 year.
E: What was your experience with the Johnson
Space Center and NASA Space Radiation
Laboratory? Is an eventual pursuit of a space
mission or return to NASA on your road map?
N: Ultimately, space medicine is all about health
and performance under the wild conditions of
gravity changes, space radiation, and isolation/
confinement. I got involved in 2015; the space
medicine community is growing, but when
I started it felt small enough that a few of
us have kept up over the years, sharing new
developments and ways to get involved, so it's
really the community that keeps me coming
back. The Aerospace Medicine Association
has been our hub, and that's how I found
the internship at NASA Exploration Medical
Capability (ExMC). I got to work with the
E: Your initial match statement included
numerous artistic interests: poetry, writing,
and painting. Should painting, poetry, and
story/writing be more readily incorporated
into medical training, medicine/cancer care,
and space research/exploration? What benefits
have you noticed from Neuroaesthetics in your
own life and training?
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