Ada Zhu

• University of Massachusetts Medical School 2027
• Cornell University 2021

I came to DermCare Experts from another practice hoping to find more mental stimulation and mentorship during my gap years – and I most definitely did. My time in the Combined Dermatology and Clinical Research Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Fellowship has made me more confident, empathetic, diligent and resilient in preparation for the rest of my medical education.

Simultaneously working as a medical assistant and clinical research coordinator, I was compelled to work and think like a medical student or even a resident. Even with previous experience working in dermatology, the learning curve for this job was one of the most difficult that I’ve ever had to overcome. The pace and patient-load at the clinic pushed me to work extremely efficiently and think quickly on my feet to respond to unforeseen circumstances that occurred regularly. After busy days sometimes seeing up to 50 patients a day with just one doctor, I was always very proud of myself and our team for working together and getting through what often seemed like an impossible clinic day. The immense responsibilities that Dr. Kuohung entrusts in the fellows encouraged me to really understand each patient’s case and follow through with their care while building truly intimate rapport with many patients.

One of my many responsibilities was writing progress notes during patient visits. Writing and re-writing patient notes under Dr. Kuohung’s direction was one of the most difficult skills to hone. Dr. Kuohung is very meticulous about progress notes and can be very blunt with her feedback. Her teaching has pushed me to be scrupulous with everything I do in clinic as well as resilient to feedback. Writing up summaries following extensive conversations with patients in the exam room has made me think through cases like a physician. I recall shadowing a physician in the ER during my second gap year and rejoicing that I was able to follow the physician’s diagnosis and treatment plan as he discussed with his resident despite knowing very little medical knowledge about the condition. Now as a first year medical student, I am already completely comfortable with the patient interview and have no anxiety going into my pre-clinical rotations with attendings. I know that with these past two years at DermCare Experts under my belt, I am so much more prepared for the difficult journey ahead as a future physician.

Finally, Dr. Kuohung is an incredible mentor who truly wants her students to excel. She can be blunt and has very high expectations for her students, but it is this type of mentorship that built my diligence, resilience, and preparedness to enter medicine. The opportunities that Dr. Kuohung has connected me to range from landing incredible volunteer positions like Camp Discovery to shadowing a wide range of specialties including an interventional cardiologist in the OR. She goes above and beyond to network and help her students as much as she can. I’ve seen how her mentorship extends way beyond the fellowship as I watch her guide previous fellows throughout med school and even in residency. I know that she will be there to guide me whether it’s dermatology or whatever specialty I decide to pursue.

Ryan Chen

• University of Massachusetts Medical School 2025
• Boston University 2019

The Combined Dermatology and Clinical Research Fellowship was the most difficult job that I held during my premedical career. On my first day, I found myself awkwardly taking a patient’s medical history within ten minutes of showing up on site. Throughout the next few months, I felt a sense of hesitancy and uncertainty as I took on unfamiliar responsibilities in clinic. I found it particularly difficult to transition from a structured educational undergraduate environment to a fast-paced, hands-on clinical environment.

This program is very different from other premedical gap year positions. Unlike a 9:00 to 5:00 scribe position, this program allows its fellows to attain a comprehensive understanding of how our healthcare system works. From day one, I learned about the responsibilities of a physician working in a private practice. I took my patients’ history of present illness and participated in the assessment and plan portion of the visit. I also assisted in relevant medical and cosmetic procedures. Moreover, I was involved with administrative tasks, medical billing, clinic maintenance, and translational clinical research. As I mastered my clinical responsibilities, I started to pursue community service projects, devise systems based improvements, and eventually train the incoming junior class. Naturally, my multitude of responsibilities required a lot of time management and organization, and I often found myself working more than sixty hours a week.

Although challenging, I found my time in this fellowship to be extremely rewarding. Being responsible for over twenty patients a day taught me how to navigate sometimes difficult social situations and improve my interpersonal skills. During my medical school orientation, I volunteered to hold a conversation with a standardized patient, and my peers were impressed at how smooth our conversation went. Additionally, during a training session for intramuscular injections, I confidently injected saline via the Z track method into my partner’s arm given my familiarity with performing subcutaneous and intramuscular injections as a clinical research coordinator. The hands-on learning environment at the fellowship ultimately allowed me to develop a plethora of clinical skills which will help me later in my medical career. As an incoming medical student, I can confidently say that I have a better understanding of basic procedural skills, common medical interventions and their indications, and how the insurance system in the United States works.

I would attribute my success in this program to the mentorship of Dr. Kuohung as well as the support that I received from my seniors and peers. While it is true that I was held to extremely high standards during my time in the fellowship, I understood that everyone genuinely wanted to see me succeed. I will be forever grateful for my experience at this fellowship, and I know for a fact that I would not be where I am today in my medical school career without this program. This premedical fellowship is the perfect opportunity for students to gain the necessary experience to understand the daily responsibilities of a physician and excel in medical school.

Maxine Lai

• Manager, Clinical Research IO
• Wesleyan University 2017

The Combined Dermatology and Clinical Research Fellowship offers students a unique opportunity to fully immerse themselves in the multifaceted and complex world of medicine. While this program is challenging, I promise that it is also extremely rewarding.

In hindsight, the first four months of the fellowship are the toughest. In this short time, you are expected to master the fundamental skills and workflows that will allow you to succeed as both a medical assistant and a clinical research coordinator. Between meeting 20-25 patients a day in clinic, quarterbacking patient follow-up, reading up on new conditions or medications that I encountered, mastering study protocols, and completing study visits, it was easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer number of responsibilities and the level of autonomy given to me. It was only after 6 months that I started to feel comfortable balancing all my duties and even then, this position remained challenging. As I progressed through the fellowship, Dr. Kuohung pushed me to take on new tasks, dive deeper into medical literature and think about the business, legal and scientific aspects of practicing medicine.

To speak more about the clinical research component of this program, fellows are engaged in all parts of study initiation and maintenance. I learned how to interpret complex study protocols, build source documents, carry out study visits, juggle the many demands of sponsors and CROs, and build rapport with trial patients. Managing clinical trials across a wide range of indications completely transformed my basic understanding of drug development. I also saw firsthand how clinical research plays a role in furthering medicine and how that can trickle down into everyday patient management.

As a mentor, Dr. Kuohung is an enthusiastic, passionate, and knowledgeable teacher. She works closely with each of her fellows, offering frequent and direct feedback. Although she can sometimes be tough, it is because she cares deeply about her fellows and is invested in their success. You can always count on Dr. Kuohung to advocate for her students when it comes to learning opportunities inside and outside of the program.

While I ultimately decided to pursue a different career path, I know that I wouldn’t be where I am now without this program and Dr. Kuohung’s continued support. In fact, it is because of my work as a fellow that I was able to reach my current position as Implementation Manager – Team Lead for CRIO. CRIO is the leading eSource and clinical trial management solution within the clinical research industry. When I first joined the team, I provided support to different departments including customer success, quality assurance and marketing as an associate. With my research experience and early exposure to the industry as a coordinator, I was able to transition to a client facing role and quickly grow upwards within the company. Now I help research sites adopt CRIO into their daily operations. Everything that I learned in the fellowship can be translated into my current work which is all about developing connections and helping research sites successfully utilize different parts of our platform.

I am grateful to Dr. Kuohung and the fellowship for all the lessons learned and the relationships gained. If you would like to learn more about the clinical research or CRIO components of the program, please feel free to reach out at maxine@clinicalresearch.io!

Kalvin Nash

• Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine 2024
• Hamilton College 2018

The Combined Dermatology and Clinical Research Fellowship afforded me many opportunities for personal and professional development that have subsequently formed me into a more thoughtful, competitive, and efficient medical professional. I have been, and still am, surprised by how much I learned under Dr. Kuohung’s tutelage. As a junior fellow, I recall how timidly I approached venipuncture or new administrative tasks. Now as a medical student at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, I confidently complete all my clinical responsibilities. My early journey through medicine did not come, however, without sacrifice or hardship.

My transition, from the mentality of an undergraduate to that of a medical student was arduous and miserable. My commitment to the clinic and its patients took a heavy toll. Every day for my first four months as a premedical fellow, I considered quitting. The overwhelming torrent of knowledge paired with demanding clinic hours led me to reevaluate my professional aspirations and trajectory. Indeed, I arrived at the clinic each morning at 7:45 AM and did not leave until we documented and advised our last patient on their disease. Somedays, the clinic closed at 5:00 PM. Other days, the clinic did not end until well past 7:00 PM. And even after having left the clinic, my mind lingered there within. “Did I complete all my progress notes accurately?” “Did I move the TB blood to the Quest drop-box?” My second guessing was crippling at times, worsened still by my failure despite my enthusiastic endeavors. This transition, as difficult as it was, was important and formative. My acknowledgement of my inadequacies and failures is what I needed to inspire me to work harder. If it were not for this difficult transitional phase, I would not have had the humility and motivation to persist through the program, nor would I have been poised to begin medical school in the summer of 2020

Now, as a current M2 preparing to transition to the wards, I am grateful to have been a premedical fellow. In retrospect I realize that it was thanks to Dr. Kuohung that I learned how to take a patient history, a skill at the core of any diagnosis and essential to the practice of medicine. In the clinic, I remember using my developing medical reasoning skills to ask pertinent questions during the patient interview. For instance, I recall the algorithm I developed for interviewing patients who present with a scaly hypopigmented rash localized to their torso and upper extremity. I learned to ask such patients about their fitness habits since tinea versicolor, a differential diagnosis, is associated with athletes. A positive patient history that interrogated exercise habits could clinch this diagnosis (in addition to a positive KOH). A good history can therefore make or break a diagnosis which is why I am so lucky to have developed this skill early.

The core history taking and clinical reasoning skills I developed at the fellowship make me an effective and efficient thinker in the exam room. Recently, I used these very skills to help diagnose a case of lymphangitis, an infectious dermato-vascular process. An 84 Y/O woman presents to the clinic with 2-day history of acute pain, limited range of motion, and erythema affecting the left wrist, palm, and ventral forearm. She reports that symptoms began at the time of waking and denies overuse of the arm and hand. She does not recall sustaining any injury prior to the day of symptom onset. Initial pain was followed by swelling and erythema of the affected area 1 day after symptom onset. The erythema expanded in a linear fashion along the ventral aspect of her forearm. Her pain is 8/10. Her symptoms worsened progressively and include pain, swelling, and reduced range of motion. The pain as sharp and radiating. She treated her symptoms with an OTC topical cream for arthritis but did not note improvement.

Based on visual examination of the lesion alone, the differential is quite extensive. It could be a stress fracture, lymphangitis, tenosynovitis, gout, or even rheumatoid arthritis. Details I collected in her history, however, make the likelihood for some conditions on the differential less likely. For example, the warm, linear, red, progressive streak up the ventral aspect of the forearm might favor an infectious process like lymphangitis. No history of wrist overuse or strain might make tenosynovitis less favorable. The unilateral distribution of disease might make rheumatoid arthritis less likely. Thus, the patient’s history helps to parameterize their condition and can therefore dramatically affect our medical evaluation and pretest-probabilities. While history taking is taught in medical school, learning when, how, or why some questions are to be asked takes advanced knowledge and plenty of experience which is why an early immersive premedical experience is invaluable. Dr. Kuohung prepared me to grapple with such cases by challenging me to enter the mindset of a physician whilst in the exam room during my tenure in the fellowship. It was early experiences through her program that trained me to be an insightful addition to the medical team as a second-year medical student and stand apart from my peers.

Through performing countless patient interviews, engaging with up to 26 progress notes daily, liaising with laboratories, pharmacies, clinics, insurance providers, IRBs, CROs, reviewing benign pathology with patients under MD supervision, and assisting during surgical procedures, I acquired the necessary experience to think critically about what it means to be a physician in the community. As a mentor, Dr. Kuohung has created several occasions for me to shadow, speak with, and learn from several physicians across myriad specialties. She is committed to seeing all her fellows achieve their dreams which is what sets her apart from other physicians having similar programs. Even for me as a graduate of the program, she continues to demonstrate her allyship by offering to connect me to her colleagues, key opinion leaders in their respective disciplines. Dr. Kuohung’s commitment to her fellows, both direct and indirect by way of this program, prepared me to be a competitive and informed medical school applicant, and an equipped medical student. The premedical fellowship offers the unique opportunity for the professional development of aspiring physicians through a condensed, thorough, fast-paced, and intensive curriculum. From venipuncture to collecting a patient’s history, there are several occasions for one-on-one patient interaction. Dissimilar to many pre-medical gap year programs, this fellowship focuses on developing the skills of its fellows for the cultivation of thoughtful and informed future physicians. Dr. Kuohung accomplishes this by encouraging her fellows to take on new and sometimes challenging tasks under her supervision. Fellows, as a result, quickly begin to comprehend then engage with the scientific, medical, and ethical facets of clinical encounters and decision making.

Omar Taweh

• University of Massachusetts Medical School 2024
• University of Connecticut 2019

A member of the DermCare Experts team for a summer internship before medical school, I can confidently say that Dr. Kuohung is the most dynamic, energetic, and amazing mentor I’ve had in any clinical setting, insofar. A well-rounded student, I wasn’t expecting a challenge like the one I encountered joining the summer clinical internship, one set in an intense work environment and that began with a steep learning curve.

A physician trained in both law and in medicine, Dr. Kuohung helps activate her interns critical thinking skills from the medical, legal, and social justice perspectives. Having been granted a gradually increasing level of autonomy over the course of my time at the clinic, I was not only exposed to the thought processes used in medicine but, was also granted the opportunity to engage in them myself. Under the guidance of Dr. Kuohung, I learned how to do things I had not imagined I would have done until the end of my medical school career, if not until my residency.

All compliments aside however, this program pushed me far more than any other job, class, or internship had previously. As a result however, I will perform at a significantly higher caliber during medical school because I was held to high expectations. In my time here, I learned what true “tough love” from a mentor and boss looked like – one that held your hand at times, and at other times let you figure out how to swim on your own. I can confidently say that it is NOT for simply any pre-med; to survive and succeed, one must be motivated, dedicated, and extremely open to rebuilding their understanding of what a clinical internship would look like. All in all, this program will help you prepare to stand out amongst your peers both in the medical school application process, but also in the medical school classroom.