For the last 6 months or so our goal has been to create a device that will aid with skin cancer detection and prevention. We wanted to be able to use our device to capture pictures of skin lesions which can then hopefully catch the cancer before it spreads and get patients the necessary treatment. However before coming to Barretos all we knew about skin cancer was what we had read and seen during our research. Skin cancer was manifested in non-patient identifiable pictures of lesions and scientific papers. Even our preliminary trials for the device had been with drawn-on sharpie lesions. However, being in Barretos has put faces to our project. It has made it human. Often with medicine and even technology design, it feels as if the medical problem is all about science or engineering and we often forget about the humanity portion.

A few days ago, Pablo, Johan and I had some down time so we decided to explore the hospital and see if we could get a feel for how things work around here. We wanted to keep our eyes peeled for any other challenges that could turn into future projects at Rice. But while we struggled to find anything of that nature, we did get to see good portion of the hospital outside the Prevention Department, where our office area is. However the most striking has to be the waiting areas. Like most hospitals, there are waiting areas for each department of the hospital, however the biggest difference has to be the intake area. Most hospitals I’ve seen have a general intake area of maybe 30-40 chairs at the most. However, at Barretos, the intake area had at least 200. Easy. And everyone was there because they either have cancer, had cancer, or might have cancer. The sheer volume of intake in this hospital is overwhelming. From Rio de Janeiro to remote villages in the Amazon, people travel from all over Brazil to seek treatment at Barretos. So while we are already insanely motivated to progress the BTB devices we brought, seeing all the lives we could impact with the Biopsy Forceps, Chemoseal devices, and teledermatology system, added a big dose of humanity and desire to make a difference.

A few days after starting our work at Hospital de Cancer de Barretos, Pablo and I got offered the chance to witness skin lesion surgery. And being the premed that I am, I jumped at the opportunity. Our mentor here, Dr. Carlos Silveira was going to perform 6 surgeries, removing cancerous skin lesions from patients. We watched two of these surgeries and it provided us with the opportunity to see the next step past where our device would be implemented. What was especially interesting was the fact that these are relatively quick, outpatient procedures. The patients are conscious the entire time with local anesthesia being administered to prevent pain. This means we said hi to each patient that entered and left the room. Once again the process got a massive dose of humanity. However, on the science side, it was also very cool because we finally got to see real cancerous lesions. A lot of the lesions we have seen here are located on the neck or face, which has definitely made us think about the shape and functionality of the device (which we have named Melacap- for melanoma/melanin and capturing pictures/REDCap(the database we use)).

In the meantime, we have also been preparing lots of our documents. Right now, a lot of Pablo and my work has been centered on translating our previously existing user manuals/ fact sheets into Portuguese. Johan has successfully set up the REDCap database and is just hammering out last minute details (with the database and app) before he heads back to the states tomorrow. Our last few days have been extremely crucial in figuring out what info Dr. Carlos needs and wants when analyzing the images so we can make sure they are included in the app/database/user manual.

Our next steps include feedback surveys on our technologies (Melacap, Chemoseal and Biopsy Forceps) as well collecting any last minute supplies we need for these devices! But arguably most important right now are the REDCap/App coding lessons we are getting from Johan before he heads back to Texas and then on to start his job in Georgia (Good luck!!!).

And lastly, here is this post’s Portuguese lesson:

In Brazil, it is very common as a greeting to ask a person, “Oi! Tudo bem?” And they will respond, “Tudo bem.” This is the equivalent of asking, “Hi! Everything’s good?” And a response of “Yup, everything is good.”

Until next time, tchau!