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A group of Indianapolis-area middle school students attending an anatomy class at last June’s Doctor Camp at the Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis listened attentively as a counselor asked, “Who knows what causes heartburn?”
Jonathan Lee, a smartly dressed seventh-grader-to-be at the St. Michael School in Indianapolis, raised his hand and correctly answered that heartburn comes from acids in the stomach and not some malfunction within the heart. “I saw it in a commercial,” he later admitted.
Lee was one of around 30 inner city and minority middle school students from the Indianapolis metropolitan area who attended the ninth annual Doctor Camp, sponsored by the IUSM Office of Medical-Service Learning. With medical students serving as hands-on counselors, the campers divided into four teams and rotated through anatomy, neurology, physical diagnosis, and pathology sessions. They took notes, filled in questionnaires, and got their hands into everything. After lunch, the entire group had session on radiology, got an inside tour of an ambulance, then wrapped up the day with an enthusiastic game of Jeopardy.
Emmanuel Kwakye, 12, is a two-year veteran of the camp. “Before Doctor Camp, I already knew I wanted to be a doctor,” said the Lincoln Middle School student. “I just wanted to find out more about what they do.” Inspired by medical television programs, Kwakye enjoyed learning from real medical students. “I liked learning how oxygen goes from the heart to the brain.”
Raheema Chachouai, who will be in seventh grade at Lynhurst 7th and 8th Grade Center in Indianapolis, also liked learning about cardiology. “It’s pretty cool,” she said, “and maybe something I’d like to do in the future.”
Heidi Anderson, a fourth-year medical student, cautioned campers against relying too much on television for medical facts in the physical diagnosis class she led with Rob Cantor, a second-year student. The doctors on Gray’s Anatomy wear their stethoscopes wrong, she said, demonstrating that the ear pieces should go slightly forward instead of in the backward Gray’s Anatomy fashion.
Cantor and Anderson also demonstrated the importance of washing hands to kill germs, having everyone apply Glo-Gel (fake germs), then using an ultraviolet light to see how thoroughly germs can cover the hands. Campers then applied hand sanitizer and took another look, seeing many fewer illuminated “germs.”
“Why are our veins blue?” Cantor asked before launching into a discussion of how oxygenated blood travels through bodies. The pair then spoke about heart rate and pulses and helped the kids find their own with properly worn stethoscopes. One of Anderson’s two young sons in attendance volunteered as a shirtless sample patient, so she could show how to listen to his heartbeat.
Throughout the day, counselors taught students Latin medical terminology and offered easy ways to remember them. “Systolic is the upper number so you can think of that as sky,” Anderson said, talking about taking blood pressure readings. “Diastolic is the lower number, so you can think of the ‘D’ in dirt.”
The son of an ophthalmologist, in 7th grade Cantor began shadowing his father. Now leaning toward a career in emergency medicine, Cantor said he would have benefitted from Doctor Camp. “I wish I would have had a program like this,” he said. “I think it’s a great idea.”
Dracina Will, a second-year IU medical student, was one of the co-chairs (along with Tom Loke, a second-year, and Elaina Chen, a first-year) who helped organize the event. From getting volunteers to ordering T-shirts to determining the logistics of the day, the trio helped ensure that the event would be both fast-paced and informative. They also pulled together the following week’s “Camp Medical Detectives,” which introduced Indianapolis-area high school students to the medical sciences.
Will, an Evansville native, has always liked science and helping people, so a career as a physician was a natural fit. “I think it’s important to give back,” Will said of her role in organizing both camps. “I would have loved to do something like that as a kid. It’s good experience for the medical students to teach kids because you have to take out the medical terminology and relate to them.”
Matt Franz and Amanda Jackson, both beginning their third years at IUSM, teamed up to lead the anatomy sessions. They concurred on the importance of an early introduction to medicine. “My parents both worked in healthcare,” said Franz who hopes to one day become a surgeon. “They weren’t doctors, but both had neat jobs.”
For Jackson, who is looking at both emergency medicine and pediatrics, the chance to share her growing expertise with younger students was especially gratifying. “I participated in a volunteer program at a community hospital,” said Jackson, who grew up near Kokomo, “but we never had anything like this.”
