Local high school students participate in unique Medical Center study program
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| Students from 11 high schools pose for a photograph following a tour of Loma Linda University Medical Center Proton Treatment Center. To date, more than 500 students have completed "Identifying Scientific Principles in Cancer Management," which is held on eight consecutive Sundays. |
For the past seven years, Loma Linda University Medical Center has offered a unique program to more than 500 high school students in the Medical Center's service area. "Identifying Scientific Principles in Cancer Management" was first offered in 1993 to students from Loma Linda Academy and the Redlands Unified School District. Last year, 94 students from 11 high schools participated in the research program.
"In this educational outreach project, Loma Linda scientists demonstrate some scientific principles and their applications in medicine," says James M. Slater, MD, FACR, chair, department of radiation medicine and head of the Proton Treatment Center, one of the founders of the program.
Technologies discussed in the education program are primarily those of radiation oncology; that is, the imaging and therapeutic technologies--usually radiation-based--that are used to detect, diagnose, and treat human disease in the departments of radiology and radiation medicine at the Medical Center.
Students who participate in the program, which is offered without charge, must make a major commitment of time. Topics discussed during the eight-week course include diagnostic imaging: x-ray, CT, and MRI; nuclear medicine; radiation biology; immunology, monoclonal antibodies, and cancer; medical physics and accelerator physics, states James B. Slater, PhD, director of LLUMC's radiopharmaceutical laboratory.
"It is a real pleasure for us to work with these students each year," says Dr. James B. Slater. "These students have a real interest in science and medicine. The lectures are delivered by physicians and scientists from the Medical Center who give of their time to assist in the program."
Each student who participates is given a 90-page syllabus containing lecture notes and self-evaluation questions to be filled out by the participating student.
At the conclusion of the course, the students and their parents are taken on an in-depth tour of the Proton Treatment Center, followed by a certificate presentation ceremony.