The TJ Medical Society has already gained a large member base of willing participants at the magnet school, which is geared specifically toward motivated students with scientific interests. With outside help, the organization would be able to participate in more visits to hospitals and provide more such in-depth experiences as it has in the past. Having demonstrated our operating efficacy in this manner, the organization is currently trying to expand its programs to a more varied audience, including individuals at other high schools and younger children in grade school and elsewhere in the community. By exposing a more youthful part of the population to topics of science this early on, they are able to develop their interests and decide whether or not they wish to pursue studies in medicine or other topics. TJ Medical Society would be able to provide a foundation off which people could build their knowledge provide resources for further study. Amongst an older audience, Medical Society would focus upon spreading awareness of current medical issues, and hopefully inspire secondary school students to consider the opportunities that await them in the medical field. A proposition has been made to host TJ Medical Society’s first annual “Medical Bowl,” as a competitive event with incentives for students studying science from around the area, and hopefully this will happen this upcoming school year. It is the club’s hope that further funding will be procured in the future to serve as capital investments toward planning and successfully executing these projects.

-Dennis Wang

-Jason Ya

Meetings
This club meets regularly on alternate Wednesday A-blocks or as determined by the club sponsor.

Email
Email is definitely the best way to get in touch with us. Please feel free to email us with any comments, suggestions, questions, or concerns you may have. You can email us at tjmedicalsociety@gmail.com

Stop By
The officers meet every other Wednesday during lunch on weeks we don’t have MEDSOC in room 123 (Dr. Uston’s room). If you need to talk to us in person or have an idea you’d like to give for a future meeting, please stop by!

Dr. Uston
Our amazing sponsor, always willing to let us use her room, is located in room 123. If you have any questions about the club, don’t hesitate to ask her or leave a note with her for us.

Ideas?
The officers of MEDSOC are constantly trying to come up with new and interesting meetings for you all. However amazing we may be, our fountain of creativity sometimes does run dry. Do you have any ideas for interesting meetings? Do you have any good resources? Is your father the Surgeon General of the United States? If so, please email us NO LATER THAN a week before our scheduled meeting. We also want ideas for fundraising.

-TJ Medical Society

The second of our series of videos graciously provided by Sid Bhatia showcases a further application of robotic surgery, which is able to correct an aneurysm (thinning and bloating of the blood vessel) in the spleen, an organ necessary in the filtration and production of blood. Robots allows doctors to perform these operations with greatly shortened recovery times owing to their minimally invasive nature.

-Dennis Wang (video courtesy of Sid Bhatia)

-Dennis Wang

Finally, there are still positions open for the trip to see Open Heart Surgery on June 20th, after school has ended. We can take about 5 more and the event is at INOVA Fairfax Hospital as it was last year. Pictures from last year’s trip can be found on the Powerpoint below, amongst other things from 2007-2008. Please email tjmedicalsociety@gmail.com if you are interested.

-Dennis Wang

Following last week’s elections, we have the results for next year’s officer corps and they are as follows:

Co-presidents: Divya Srinivasan, Dennis Wang

Secretary: Nader Al-Naji

Treasurer: Jayson Marwaha

Senator: Jerry Liu

Public Relations: Nicholas Nguyen

Several of the votes came very close, and making decisions for the appointed offices was very difficult as well, so for those of you that did not gain an officer position this year, we hope that you will run again next year. More importantly, we hope that you will continue your involvement in this club and your pursuit of medicine in the coming year. That being said, we do not have any more meetings for this year, as 8th periods are now coming to a close. Goodbye to our seniors and have a wonderful summer!

-Dennis Wang

Please take a moment to remember the devastating loss of life following the 7.9 magnitude earthquake on May 12th, 2008, in the Sichuan province of China. Please also consider making a tax-deductible charitable donation to the Chinese Embassy, the International Red Cross, or any other foundation working to expedite the relief process currently underway in China. The following addresses are provided, and contributions may also be made online. Thank you for your generosity!

Chinese Embassy: 2300 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington DC, 20008

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC): PO Box 2600, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland

-Dennis Wang

A video which I felt accurately represented what we saw at the Bodies Exhibition when it was on display at the Rosslyn Dome. As words cannot describe what we saw and we were not allowed to take pictures, this YouTube video is the next best thing to having actually been there.  Not is it an enlightening experience for those who do not necessarily understand how the body works, it is also a great chance to renew your sense of appreciation for the intricacies of the human anatomy. For those that have not been but are given the opportunity to do so in the future, I highly recommend the exhibition.

-Dennis Wang

Additionally, TJ Medical Society is, in its own right, a service organization, whose members regularly perform volunteer work at hospitals such as INOVA, and on behalf of charitable foundations such as the American Red Cross, CrossLinks, St. Jude’s Hospital, etc. Others have taken the initiative to raise thousands of dollars on their own for relief efforts following the recent disasters involving a 7.9 magnitude earthquake in Sichuan, and an equally devastating hurricane (Nargis) in Myanmar.

Many of the activities in which the TJ Medical Society is involved are unique and serve as a primary source for personal and hands-on experience which is lacked in the formal education of many students. Through our efforts, we seek not only to make an impact upon those in times of crisis around the world, but also to prepare students for the future by providing enrichment which is informative, interactive, and entertaining, and a forum for discussion about topics pertaining to the medical field.

-Dennis Wang