About Me
I am from... San Francisco and Barcelona
These two cities have shaped who I am and my academic and career aspirations. I was born in San Francisco and lived in the city until I was 16. I was a typical “city kid” with a heavy family focus on innovation and technology, a strong sense of multiculturalism and community and a decent level of “street smarts”. Then, in my junior year of high school, during Covid, my family moved to Barcelona, Spain where I did the two-year International Baccalaureate program at the American School of Barcelona. Spain transformed my understanding of multiculturalism, community, geopolitics, healthcare and biomedical innovation. Let me tell you a little bit more.
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My ultimate career goal is to mitigate healthcare inequity through innovation. My near-term educational goals are to pursue biomedical engineering and business undergrad and then attend medical school in order to develop the expertise I will need to innovate in this domain and commercialize innovation for maximum impact on global health.
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I have lived and/or worked in the U.S., Spain and Romania and seen a range of economic and healthcare models. In Romania, I was told by the O.R. nurse not to re-scrub because the cost of water was too high. In Spain, I benefit from top-tier care that is mainly government-funded and available to everyone. In the US, I have visibility into how fundamental needs, such as for insulin, can financially stress the average family but that the US venture and innovation ecosystem is unparalleled in its production of technological advancements. I believe innovation in biomedical engineering has the potential to radically lower costs through proactive care and to democratize access to healthcare around the world.
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During the 2020-2021 school year, I suffered two serious concussions. The first occurred in September, and the second in January. I could not get out of bed without becoming dizzy, and in order to recover from the traumatic brain injury, I was not allowed to engage in any mentally strenuous activities. As a result, I was forced to take medical leave for a cumulative six months of the school year and had to withdraw from many of my classes.
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Medicine
I want a life of purpose, and being a physician, focused on innovation and entrepreneurship to improve care for all, is that purpose. Being a physician is about providing best-in-class care, being the bridge between science and the patient, working on a team, and recognizing shared humanity.
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Patients are, almost by definition, experiencing vulnerability in a care environment. And most patients don’t understand medical jargon, let alone the next wave of technology and treatment options. A great doctor is one who explains the science and the technology in an approachable manner to empower patients to make good decisions. I have worked in Spain, where I am fluent, and in Romania, where I am not. Beyond basic communication, that dynamic further sensitized me to the more nuanced side of approachability, including simple language, a smile or a hand squeeze.
Engineering
Innovation in healthtech has the potential to radically lower costs through proactive care and to democratize access to healthcare. The engineering aspect encapsulates my inclination to look for solutions, while the biology behind the interconnected and complex nature of the human body fascinates me. Hence, I am majoring in Biomedical Engineering.
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Until our family move to Spain four years ago, I had spent my life in San Francisco where innovation and disruption are woven into the fabric of the city - even for kids. In San Francisco, 70-80% of our community were involved in start ups or technology of some form. Dinner conversations were about disruptive ideas, ideation processes, building things and risk taking. In what I can only characterize as a stroke of luck, Barcelona happens to be a hub of biotech innovation, with the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the University of Barcelona all located within 5 kilometers of my apartment. Exposure to biomedical engineering at these world-leading institutions inspired me and drove my interest in BME.
With the rate at which technology is changing healthcare, I don’t yet know whether my long term focus will be personalized medicine/immunotherapy enabled through AI, or using biosensors/nanotechnology in patient monitoring, or driving virtual reality technology to deliver best in class care to remote regions of the world. I have been fortunate to work in both pure research labs (Universitat de Barcelona and Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia) and a Spanish public biotech company, Almirall S.A. PJTL is particularly exciting to me in its public/private partnership model and working on addressing applied problems with disruptive technology.
Business
From my vantage point, a significant driver of impact is a self-sustaining business model. Commercial models drive discipline around customer need, strategy, product-market fit, production viability and ultimately, profitable revenue growth ,which in turn, enables the next wave of investment. My summer at Almirall, S.A., a publicly-listed biotech in Barcelona, introduced me to what a scaled, commercially successful organization looks like. I learned about how companies decide where to invest (portfolio theory), key milestones and timelines, repeatable processes, quality assurance and regulatory dynamics. While a small glimpse of the overall set of considerations of a commercial business, it was eye opening and inspired me to keep working to understand all that I don’t know.
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My internship with Life Magnetics, part of the Perot Jain Techlab Healthtech program through the University of Michigan Center for Entrepreneurship, is providing me insight into how early stage companies operate and how to incubate an idea and make it viable. I am loving the process.
I have learned about business by “diving in” on the science and product creation side of the equation. I have a strong desire to learn more about the fundamentals underpinning business models through some of the foundational concepts such as strategy, accounting, finance and organizational design.
