Bioware

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/kevin_stone_the_bio_future_of_joint_replacement.htmlhttp://
In this TED talk, orthopedic surgeon Kevin Stone discusses his ideas concerning the evolvement of knee surgery. Having had knee surgery himself, he has since been looking for an alternative to human tissue being used since it is not exactly in high supply and is extremely expensive. His solution to this issue is using animal tissue instead of human since it is in more abundant supply and there are more young and healthy tissues available. The only problem with this though is the transplant complications between animals and humans. He believes though, that by combining both some of the tissue with the animals to try to make the transplant safer for people.
This TED talk interested me the most for two reasons. First, I have always wanted to be a doctor for longer than I can remember and decided that I wanted to specifically be an orthopedic surgeon in middle school. Second, because I have had many knee injuries and problems throughout my life and have almost had to have surgery at one point where the options of having human tissue placed in my knee was an option.

Kevin Stone attended Moses Brown School and Harvard College, where he majored in biology, and then went on to medical school at the University Of North Carolina School Of Medicine. He did some training at Harvard’s Beth Israel Hospital for a couple years as well as Stanford Hospital as a general surgeon. Then he was an orthopedic surgeon at The Harvard Combined Orthopedic Residency for three years. Afterwards, he did some research at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York as well as a fellowship in knee surgery in Lake Tahoe. Finally he founded The Stone Clinic in San Francisco in 1988 that focuses on injured athletes and people who have arthritis. He has also been a physician for many dance and sports teams over the years as well. He has become internationally recognized as an expert on cartilage and meniscal growth, replacement, and repair. In addition, Stone developed the paste grafting surgical technique which has been taught to not only doctors in the United States, but the world as well. Over the years his research has helped advance many different surgical techniques and has more than 50 U.S. patents for his healthcare inventions. His confidence and determination, as well as his humor, have helped him become successful over the years and have aided him in spreading his knowledge to others as well. Stone’s determination to help others after having knee surgery himself is unique and you can tell that it is what drives him to find the best possible solution for it.

As I have mentioned before, I have been pursuing this goal of mine to be a doctor my whole life now and for a good part of it, specifically an orthopedic surgeon. I have always been the person who fixes everything or help others when they are hurt or upset and so this has influenced me a lot in that dream of mine. In addition, my family has had just about every type of cancer or disease over the years and I have always felt helpless knowing that there is nothing I could do to help them, which is my primary reason for wanting to be a doctor. In college, I will be majoring in biochemistry, which is probably the most popular major for students seeking careers in medicine since the required courses align best with the credits needed for medical school. In terms of internships, I have already been looking into many internships the past few years and I feel drawn most towards Doctors Without Borders. This would not just be another internship at a hospital but an actual experience that would prepare me most for whatever obstacles I may encounter in my medical career. After college, I hope to go to medical school at hopefully either Stanford or UCLA since they are both extremely good medical schools and would help prepare me most to be an orthopedic surgeon. For doctors and surgeons, applying for a job is slightly more complicated than applying for a job at Starbucks or McDonalds. It is an extremely competitive field where your acceptance weighs heavily upon your experiences rather than just what grades you may have gotten, which is why I believe that finding some sort of internship or another is vital for my medical experience after college.