From June 27th thru June 30th, ONSF held its 9th Annual Mini Med School. The ONSF
Arthroscopy, Surgical Skills, Biomechanical Research Lab provided an ideal mentor/ student
atmosphere for the 12 high school students who attended. Each enthusiastically embraced the
opportunity to participate in a “hands-on” experience, a one-week workshop in orthopedics.
Representing Greenwich Academy, Rye Country Day, St. Luke’s School, Rye Neck High School,
Greenwich High School, Newtown High School, Brunswick, Stamford High and New Canaan High
School, the students expressed an interest in careers in medicine or were enrolled in STEM
programs.

Physicians led daily discussions in injury prevention, surgical and non-surgical treatments,
physical examination and diagnosis. Broken leg? No problem for these students who spent two
sessions in a casting workshop. From wearing surgical scrubs to learning arthroscopic surgery
procedures, students became familiar with the operating room environment thanks to
demonstrations by Pamela Hunt, OR Nurse and Greenwich Hospital Education Specialist and Dr.
Megan Gleason.

Other activities included learning the fine points of fluoroscopy and performing shoulder
arthroscopy on “Alex” models. Orthopedic surgeons including Drs. Kowalsky, Delos, Cantlon,
Choo, Tomaszewski, Vadasdi, Berliner, and Pao instructed the students on various topics from
Introduction to Evidence-based Medicine and common orthopedic problems to hands-on
workshops in suturing, Distal Radius Fixation and upper and lower extremity casting. The week
included an ultrasound workshop with Dr. Heftler, review of X-ray and MRI with Dr. Desai, an
introduction to physical therapy with Colleen Bisaccio, DPT.

Mini-Med School at the ONSF Lab, offered at no cost to the student, creates an amazing
experience that has the potential to change a young person’s life.

Student comments included:

Thank you so much! This was such a valuable experience for me!

This was a very positive experience and I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to
participate.

I just wanted to thank you again for this past week at the ONSF Mini-Med School . . . I applied
for this opportunity as I’ve always been really into STEM and wanted to learn more about the
medical field to see if I’d be interested in possibly having a career in it. After the past four days, I
can definitely say that I’ve learned so much about medicine . . . I want to set my future up to be
applicable for the medical field down the line.