A Drug Named Desire: A Pharmacology Master Student's Tale of Life and Service in New Orleans

It seems as though it was only yesterday when our class listened to Dr. Clarkson give the orientation lecture for the program. Now, with a little over two weeks left in the semester, it is easy to see how the time has flown by. November proved to be as busy as ever, both in and out of the classroom. We started the month finishing up the cardiovascular (CV) module and moving straight into the renal and pulmonary module. The CV module showed me that I need to spend time over the holiday reviewing anticoagulants, antiplatelets, and thrombolytics. The renal and pulmonary module was perhaps my favorite of the semester. Before this program, I had little exposure to the kidneys and lungs and the courses gave me insight into some of the basic physiology and pathophysiology of the systems. When Dr. Katakam showed us an image detailing aspects of the kidney's structure I was convinced that it was not of this world. I spent hours watching videos about the different structures and functions of...

The question in the title is one that I've gotten quite often since I started my master's in pharmacology. I thought it would be productive to explain what pharmacology is. At its core, pharmacology is focused on studying the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs. In simpler terms, what drugs do in the body and what the body does with drugs. Over the past month, we have been studying the pharmacology and physiology of the autonomic nervous system and the cardiovascular system. Covering everything from ion channels and smooth muscle to cardiac arrhythmias and how to read an EKG, these modules have been far more difficult and nuanced than the previous ones. This difficulty certainly presented itself on our last module exam. Afterward, I knew that my current methods of studying for module exams would need some adjustment. In addition to my use of Anki and Yuja, I've started setting review benchmarks and creating more detailed study plans. I believe that these changes ...

Recently, the popular phrase from the Wizard of Oz “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore” came to mind. After a month of my pharmacology master’s program, this phrase captures how I feel about the differences between classes at the undergraduate and graduate level. During multiple lectures in both the inflammation and infectious disease modules, I realized that I had seen the material before, that I had studied in undergrad, but that the level of detail and understanding required of us is far beyond the scope of many undergraduate courses. Consequently, I had to adjust my study habits to make sure I could get through all of the material and actually learn it. It is at this moment that I would like to thank the brilliant minds behind Anki and Yuja, on behalf of graduate students everywhere!  This past month has been a tremendous time for personal growth, as well as academic. Having attended Tulane for my undergraduate career, New Orleans and its wealth of food and liv...