Medical Club hosts speaker events for club week

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Irina Malyugina

Stanford Medical School assistant professor Dr. Al’ai Alvarez speaks at a Medical Club speaker event on Feb. 28. For their club week, the Med Club invited Dr. Alvarez as well as Dr. My Phuong Mitarai to speak to students about medicine.

by Varsha Rammohan, Copy Editor

Students crowded around the upper school Anatomage Table, marveling at the layers of skin and muscle that was displayed brightly on the screen. The anatomy tool was just one of the few activities that Medical Club members could partake in during and before their annual club week from March 4 to 8.

In addition to their club week, Med Club also held special events the week before. One of these included a special peek at Harker’s Anatomage Table, a virtual anatomy visualization tool costing tens of thousands of dollars and donated to the school by four parents. Up to 30 students were able to sign up for time slots on Feb. 26 as the anatomy table room has a limited occupancy.

On Feb. 28, Med Club hosted Stanford Medical School assistant professor Dr. Al’ai Alvarez and Good Samaritan Hospital physician Dr. My Phuong Mitarai, who both spoke about their experiences in emergency medicine in biology teacher and club advisor Dr. Matthew Harley’s room during long lunch.

“The speaker event was really interesting because [Dr. Alvarez] talked about CPR and what to do in a situation where you need to do it,” attendee Elizabeth Szeto (10) said. “I ended up learning a lot about emergency medicine.”

During their club week, Med Club officers and members sold boba, popcorn chicken and coffee during extra help and office hours to fundraise for the club.

“As of now, we’re going to use the proceeds for other events in the future. For example, we are planning on holding a dissection in the beginning of the year,” club president Simar Bajaj said. “If we plan another trip, we can use any profits to subsidize any costs associated with it. A lot of members weren’t able to attend our previous trip due to the high cost.”

Stanford assistant professor and pediatric otolaryngologist Dr. Kara Meister was scheduled to speak to students on March 6, but had to cancel due to a last-minute operation. Instead, Simar gave a presentation on the history of Johns Hopkins Medical School.

Planned speaker events for Med Club include child neurologist Dr. Jennifer O’Malley on March 26 and trauma surgeon Dr. Kristin Staudenmaier in April.