Gabriela Kim will be at the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (FMUSP) until next spring. For Kim, who has close family connections to Brazil, the gap-year experience combines many of her professional and personal interests.
“Clinically, I am very interested in neonatology practice, and I am also very interested in genetics research,” said Kim. “I am also hoping to complete my residency somewhere where there are more Portuguese-speaking patients, so this is a great opportunity to practice those language skills, too.”
Kim received funding from Global REACH to help support her time in Brazil. FMUSP and its affiliated health system, Brazil’s largest, are longtime institutional partners of Michigan Medicine. She began her experience in July, spending a few months in the neonatal pediatrics and intensive care unit, observing fellows and residents caring for patients.
“I had just done my month in the NICU at U-M, so I had that recent experience and background to draw from,” she said. “Here in Brazil, there are low-, medium-, and high-risk units, which is different than in the US. There are many resource differences, too, and watching the way the attendings manage care in that environment was interesting.”
Following that clinical experience, the bulk of Kim’s time in São Paulo is being spent embedded in the lab of pediatric oncologist Alexander Augusto de Lima Jorge, whose research focuses on pediatric growth disorders. Kim’s work focuses on studying syndromic tall stature, the medical term given for individuals whose height measurements fall well outside their expected normal range without a clear cause, nutritional, genetic, or otherwise. The work entails analyzing patients’ DNA to look for variations and mutations that could be correlated to his or her unusual height.
“I’ve done some genetics research as a medical student, but this project with Dr. Alexander is my first time working with whole genome sequencing, which has been a terrific learning experience,” Kim said. “I am so grateful to be part of this lab and feel very lucky for the opportunity to come here for a year to learn these skills.”