“I loved my experience at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. My time spent shadowing in the clinic and operating room helped confirm my desire to pursue a career in surgery and take care of patients with cancer,” Means said.
Means worked with Dr. Bernard Park on a clinical research project titled “Anatomic Resection for Peripheral Pulmonary Typical Carcinoid Tumors: Is it Mandated in All Cases?” Means conducted a retrospective review to determine if non-anatomic wedge resection is equivalent to anatomic resection, which is the current standard of care for small peripheral tumors. Her responsibilities included developing a hypothesis, study design, data collection, analysis and writing a manuscript for publication.
“The Summer Pipeline Program will be a huge benefit to my medical career,” Means said. She also hopes to return to MSKCC in the future for fellowship training.
Means’ favorite part of the program was being in the operating room and attending the thoracic surgery tumor board meetings. “I enjoyed seeing the collaboration between experts in so many different fields,” she said.
Olivia Means Summer from USA Health System on Vimeo.
