Fellowship News 2022-2023

Cathina Nguyen is the Assistant Director for the COMET program. She joined COMET for the 2018-2019 cohort as a COMET fellow, and, has worked with many of the Stanford Family Medicine providers. Cathina has been a central pillar for the COMET program's research projects for years, and, has personally attended and presented at the STFM Annual Spring Conferences in the years 2019 and 2022.

In her free time she loves binge watching Netflix shows to an unhealthy degree, trying new recipes from her Harry Potter cookbook, and exploring anything Disney!

"COMET has given me some of the best opportunities of my entire life. As a COMET fellow, it allowed me first-hand experience within a complex medical system and gave me the strong foundation of patient care that I have built my career on. I'm very proud and happy to be able to come back to support the COMET program."

We were excited to hold our very first COMET Pre-Health Conference on January 27th! We hosted many motivated high school and university students in a series of interactive workshops and a discussion with a panel of speakers. The combination of learning medical technique while having in-depth conversions with each student made the evening a fun experience for everyone involved! Even though this was our first conference of its time, we found it incredibly fulfilling and fortunately, received several positive responses from the attendees. Thank you to everyone involved for an enjoyable evening and we look forward to having more conferences like these in the future!

Billy W. Loo Jr., MD PhD is a Professor of Radiation Oncology, a member of the Stanford Cancer Institute, a member of the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford (MIPS) in the Department of Radiology, and a member of Bio-X in the School of Medicine. Thank you Dr. Loo for your excellent mentorship to our COMET fellows since 2018!

"I have greatly enjoyed working with COMET fellows, who have been bright, motivated, enthusiastic, and compassionate young trainees. It has been fulfilling to see them grow and contribute substantially to patient care even as trainees, and gain real-world exposure to medical practice, particularly in the field of Radiation Oncology to which they might not otherwise have had exposure. I am particularly proud to see their success since completing the program."

Twas the night of our holiday party, when all through the house
Not a chief scribe was stirring, not even a mouse
Lights and presents were laid by the fireplace with care
In hopes that the scribes soon would be there

The scribes were arrived one by one, looking forward ahead
While visions of warm ramen danced in their head
With them in their coats and a cold evening in sight
The hot bowls of ramen kept them warm through the night

When arriving back home there arose such a temperament
As we sprang to the presents to begin white elephant
Away to the openings, we flew like a flash
Tore open the gifts and threw up the sash

As the night arrived to the end, we all had a whistle
And away we drove like the down of a thistle
But we all had exclaim, ere we drove out of sight
We said Happy Holidays to all, and to all a good night!

Jerald Jianoran

Chief Scribe Highlight: Swathi Nair Kavitha Sukesh

Overseeing Clinics: Express Care, Ravenswood clinic and Senior Care.

Goals, expectations, and visions for the program: As a COMET scribe, I have had the incredible opportunity of leading a QI cross-study research project, with Dr.Silvia Tee  and 5 fellow scribes, focusing on breaking down language and cultural barriers in Advance Care planning (ACP) form completion. We got accepted to present at STFM, AGS and SGIM (yay!) and are in the works of writing a paper.  My favorite part about the project is how it brought us 6 scribes together as friends and instilled in all of us a sense of awareness and inspiration to do more for our underserved patient population. As a chief scribe, I want to encourage our scribes to take initiative about leading research projects. I hope to help them build close interpersonal relationships with their mentoring physicians and fellow scribes.

UC Davis Pre-Health Conference

The UC Davis Pre-Health Conference was a fun experience interacting with motivated students and promoting COMET. Beginning the day was quick and active. A continuous flow of interested students came to our table to learn about our numerous opportunities. Some were merely curious, many asked questions, but everyone took the swag that we brought!

As the successful tabling session came to an end, we then transitioned to presenting a Medical Scribe Problem Solving Workshop at the conference. Despite being in a relatively small classroom, the room filled quickly and the energy between us and the crowd was infectious! The interesting presentation of a medical note in combination with the interactive humor we brought made the experience enjoyable for everyone involved. Several students graciously shared their praises for the workshop and others had their interests piqued for COMET.

With initial unknown expectations, representing COMET at the UC Davis Pre-Health Conference was a major accomplishment!

- Jerald & Dil

Chief Scribe Highlight: Jerald Jianoran

COMET has reaffirmed my journey into medicine extensively expanding my clinical horizons. As a result, I aspire to pass this experience forward to the next wave of ambitious scribes. I envision the future to be full of dynamic learning, engaging collaboration, and foundational confidence. I hope to continue providing the resources each scribe needs to feel fulfilled during their tenure with the fellowship. From graduate school application support to clinical teaching events, and meaningful socials, these are a few of several areas I anticipate accomplishing. This program is set as a launchpad for every individual's career in medicine and I will be honored to play in each scribe's journey.

Favorite experience within COMET:

My favorite experience from COMET is being able to experience Dr. Ng performing a transcatheter aortic valve replacement, TAVR. As an interventional cardiologist, he often gets tasked to perform minimally invasive cardiac procedures. He often allows me to observe, but watching the TAVR was like seeing a well-oiled machine. As I change into some hospital scrubs, I walk into the cath lab and find nurses, techs, and physicians surrounded by the patient. Beforehand, a kind nurse tells me all about the procedure and subsequently gets me excited for the TAVR to start. The next thing I know is that a team, with Dr. Ng and a cardiothoracic surgeon at the helm, begin placing a valve in the patient's aorta. It finished and I was left in awe. I got to see a patient's aorta rehabilitated and to this day I've been thankful for that experience.

COMET Social: Great America

Over the weekend COMET made the trip to Great America before it permanently closes anytime within the next 11 years! The fellows spent the day learning more about each other during the wait in the long lines, before having their minds completely wiped as they flew over the rails at 50 mph. The high energy roller coasters like the Railblazer and the Flight Deck were balanced out with a relaxing lunch at the cafeteria and a ride on the Celebration Swings! It was a great day without any ride related injuries and we'd definitely recommend going while you still can!