Media Contact: Sandra VanE-mail: [email protected]Telephone: 800-396-1002
LOS ANGELES (April 17, 2001) -- On May 30, 120 seventh- and eighth-grade students from Los Angeles-area schools will learn how researchers at Cedars-Sinai's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute are adapting declassified military technology for medical uses.
Military and law-enforcement agencies often employ thermal imaging in nighttime searches. Heat from the human body is seen as a different color than cooler surroundings. Similarly, organs and structures within the body vary in temperature. Therefore, scientists at the Institute are using thermal imagers to detect brain tumors and malformed arteries in the brain that can cause strokes. Students attending the fourth annual Brainworks program will be able to use the imagers to see differences in their own body temperatures.
Held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. one day each spring, Brainworks offers students the opportunity to learn about science, anatomy and medicine while having fun. Most of the students come from inner-city communities and from homes in which there may be little hope for a college education. The program is intended to help students reach toward careers as physicians, surgeons, nurses or research scientists, even as they realize that such careers can be within their grasp.
"Students who came to the Brainworks programs the past three years really enjoyed learning about the brain and interacting with our staff," said Keith L. Black, M.D., the world-renowned neurosurgeon and scientist who directs the Institute, the medical center's Division of Neurosurgery, and the Comprehensive Brain Tumor Program. "This gives us an opportunity to show students what it's like to work in research and patient care. We hope the experience will allow them to see how exciting science is and how fascinating the brain is, and help them imagine themselves working in a similar environment."
For the second year, Brainworks participants will have an opportunity to perform brain surgery, and every patient is guaranteed to survive. They will be using a teaching tool developed by a manufacturer of computer-assisted, surgical navigation equipment. It consists of a ball, representing a tumor, within a gel, simulating brain tissue. Attempting to extract the ball from the gel, students develop a better understanding of the challenges neurosurgeons encounter during life-saving operations on the brain.
Every student will be able to have his or her picture taken with Dr. Black and meet the surgeons, pathologists, oncologists, researchers, nurses, social workers and other professionals at the Institute and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. A neurosurgeon will explain surgical procedures for removing a brain tumor, discuss the different uses of surgical instruments, and show how the brain is imaged using magnetic resonance, CT scans and angiograms.
Students will also hear presentations about the challenges and rewards of working in the sciences, see surgical instruments and learn how they work, watch as tissue samples are prepared for laboratory exams, and get a close-up view of the brains of sheep.
Another activity is designed to help students understand the challenges faced by patients who have suffered neurological illness or injuries, and the efforts of rehabilitation specialists to help them relearn skills. Students will play the roles of patients and therapists, using wheelchairs and other "props" to make their experiences more realistic and memorable.
Participants will also meet members of the medical staff who have four legs and cold, wet noses -- dogs that are part of the medical center's pet therapy program. The furry volunteers are specially trained and certified to visit patients who are being treated for cancer and other illnesses. The canines provide companionship, stress reduction, and wagging tails, not to mention friendly faces that are a welcome addition to the day-to-day routine of patients, many of whom face long periods in the hospital.
The Institute covers all costs related to Brainworks and provides lunch for each participant. Dr. Black and others involved in the program view Brainworks as an opportunity to present a promising, intellectually challenging and rewarding career path at a time when many young people are making decisions that will determine the course of their lives. It also offers a reward and additional motivation for students who excel in science.
Teachers at several independent schools and others in the Los Angeles Unified School District select the students who are invited to attend.
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For media information and interviews, please contact Sandra Van via e-mail at [email protected] or by calling 1-800-396-1002. Thank you.
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