ABOUT ME
I M P A C T
Passion &
Career Goals
“…the intersection of mechatronics, medicine, and health disparities…”
~ OVERVIEW
“You move slower than your grandmother,” my mother laughed as I held onto her for dear life on our shorter-than-normal daily stroll, knowing I could not walk without her. During the initial months of the pandemic, our walks would typically take us throughout the neighborhood. However, after I woke up one morning unable to put any weight on my right leg, I could no longer walk unassisted without debilitating pain. I could no longer sit down or get out of bed without my mother’s support. My orthopedic physician saw nothing in my spine and, believing it to be muscle weakness, sent me to a chiropractor. My chiropractor found no issue in my muscles and assumed the issue to be a fractured disc. My general practitioner believed my disc to be intact and assured me that such a diagnosis could not be confirmed without an MRI, which I had not received. No one knew what was wrong; unfortunately, this is not a singular experience. I was continually sent home with normal test results. To this day I still have intermittent pain and fear resurgence of the issue. It took six years of navigating this pain before receiving adequate care.
I understand the stress and confusion surrounding accessing effective care for one’s condition and the effect it can have on one’s quality of life. I vividly recall the helplessness and terror, I felt in the spring of 2024 as I attempted to treat my injured back. I remember undergoing multiple expensive tests and finally being diagnosed with a herniated disc. I recollect enduring the excruciating pain of a cortisol shot before being recommended for surgery that may leave me paralyzed. I became acutely aware of how vital navigational autonomy is to maintaining quality of life. I thought of those of us for which this condition was not temporary. It put everything into question. But two questions stuck in my mind. The first being: How did we get here, without robust diagnostic tools that left me awaiting a diagnosis for six years? The second, a natural recation to the first: How do we fix this? Not only for patients like me who were incapacitated for a week. But how do we more effectively diagnose and treat lifelong patients who live with lower limb impairments and limb loss?
My arduous academic and professional careers have been—and will continue to be—dedicated to answering these questions and remedying this injustice. For this is not simply a question of techniological capability, but also a question of society, economy, and policy.
watch this video for an abridged version of my passion for engineering and healthcare
LONG STORY SHORT
COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY
My commitment to health-equity focused medical technology took on new life as the lives of over a million Americans came to an end. Pandemics are often called the great equalizer, implying that death and disease affect everyone equally regardless of demography or identity. After enduring a global pandemic, I know its devastation is anything but equal. I watched the great healthcare divide crack only wider between those who could afford wellness and those who could not. While death comes for us all, medical interventions and the US healthcare system still pick and choose which of us are saved. According to the NIH, impoverished, minority, and disabled communities suffer disproportionally when receiving medical care. From breast cancer to diabetes to a global pandemic, health gaps and disparities result in more people of color dying from treatable conditions than their white counterparts every year.
In the mostly privatized US healthcare system, access to medical care is largely dependent on the individual’s private or government issued insurance plan. According to the NIH, approximately eight percent of Americans lack health insurance. However, for those that can afford insurance, access to adequate healthcare services is not assured. Inaccessibility to healthcare centers, ineffective and inefficient diagnostic tools, and costly maintenance of assistive technologies can all significantly impact a patient’s quality of life. As a result the navigational autonomy of lifelong mobility patients—such as those with Spinal Cord Injury, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease, and amputations—remains in question. In order to restore lower limb mobility to some of our most vulnerable populations, such as the Diabetes Belt amputees who have a lower survival rate according to the NIH, we must not only create robust prosthetic devices but also assure their accessibility. Especially Black diabetic amputees who have the lowest survival rate amongst Hispanic and White patients according to the NIH. Through my research career, I aim to impact the intersectionality of health disparities and assistive technology for lower limb loss and impairment.
I was incredibly fortunate to have the familial and financial support to endure the worst of my condition and all the interventions that followed. Those who cannot afford to take off work to recover, who cannot wait six years for a diagnosis, and who will be impaired for the rest of their lives are still deserving of navigational autonomy. They deserve the ability to go on walks through their neighborhoods with their families, play sports with their friends, and overlook the allure of nature after a much-too-long hike. As researchers, we can leverage engineering and technology to develop the clinical solutions our societies need to include the most vulnerable of our populations in life’s most beautiful moments.