Their internship supervisor Dr. Rahul Sharma described their quality of work as “outstanding,” noting that “several of the faculty were impressed with their presentations and commented on how much of a pleasure it was to have them with us this summer.”
 

Ciara’s internship presentation focused on the Weill Cornell Emergency Department’s patient follow-up center, while Oliver delivered a presentation on physician performance improvement scorecards.

“The Weill Cornell Medicine internship this summer intensified my passion for medicine,” Ciara said. “Through a combination of lectures, telemedicine shadowing, and research, I was able to grasp the various roles of a physician.” 

“We were able to learn about the practice and lives of many health care professionals from researchers to physicians in various specialties to medical students,” Ciara continued. “By contributing to a research project on ED readmission, I felt like my work was valued in helping to improve the quality of care and the prognosis a patient has.”
 

Oliver detailed his experience, saying, “There were three main parts of the internship. The first was sessions with staff members of the Emergency Medicine department, mostly physicians, who discussed their paths to medicine, degrees, and roles in the department, as well as weekly journal clubs with medical students. Notably, we learned and were able to ask questions of people with various roles, like the assistant head of the department, a physician who works night shifts exclusively, and a physician-scientist actively practicing medicine and performing research. The second part was shadowing for three hours per week. In addition to the emergency medicine shadowing, we also had the opportunity to sit in on educational conference sessions intended for residents at the hospital. The final component of the month-long internship was a research project, which was assigned and facilitated by a research mentor part of the staff in the department. I spent much of this time doing research and reading papers on Physician Performance Feedback and Dashboards, and prepared and presented about the topic at the end of the program."

The Clinical and Research Internship Program provides an opportunity for students to gain invaluable clinical and research experience from leaders and experts in the field of emergency medicine. The program is conducted virtually, and each student is assigned a faculty mentor for the duration of the internship. Students work on research projects; virtually shadow clinical telemedicine patient encounters; and attend seminars and workshops on research study design, research ethics, emergency department operations, innovation, and career development.