Titan Pulse

A Northview HOSA Newsletter

2020-2021 • Volume 2

The Staff
Sonal Churiwal
Rhea Sharma
Tanvi Vedula
Thomas Cronin
Eileen Chen
Maansi Manoj
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 Table of Contents
Intro to HOSA........................pg. 2
Meet the Officers....................pg. 3
WeCare Cards........................pg. 4
3D PPE.................................pg. 4
Emory Internship....................pg. 5
Albany Presentation................pg. 6
Vaccine Hesitancy...................pg. 7
Water Crises..........................pg. 8
Our Future Vision....................pg. 8

Intro to Northview HOSA

By: Sonal Churiwal
Over the years, Northview HOSA has rapidly
expanded to offer its hundreds of members
immersive experiences within arrays of different
medical specialties. Ranging from guest
speakers from the CDC and opportunities to
ask surgeons questions to volunteering for
blood drives and donating toys to hospitals,
Northview HOSA is committed to exposing
their students to every aspect of the medical field. During the pandemic, Northview HOSA has
quickly acclimated to the virtual setting, inviting guest speakers to share how they are
contributing to helping health professionals and making cards for front-line workers.
Even amidst the global pandemic, Northview HOSA has held steady at 240 members,
consistent with previous years membership. Northview HOSA is led by our diligent team of
eleven officers and teacher sponsors! After meeting with students to help them decide which
event is the best for them, advising members on study materials, and giving one-on-one
feedback for mock SLC events, Northview HOSA has qualified as many as 127 students to the
Georgia State Leadership Conference and fifteen students to the International Leadership
Conference. Over the next few years, Northview HOSA looks forward to pushing its boundaries
by further expanding membership and offering a wider array of medically immersive
opportunities!
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 Meet the Officers
Somya Mittal: President
My favorite part of HOSA is contributing to the
community during local events. As officer, I have
brought in guest speakers and transitioned the
club to a virtual setting. My hobbies include
playing music and watching crime shows.
Firas Osmani: President
The most impactful part of HOSA is having peers
with similar ambitions and dreams. In a year
clouded with uncertainty, my co-president and I
were at the helm of this bright group of students
tasked adjusting to an online setting. Outside of
school, I enjoy playing basketball and video games.
Nikita Jha: Vice President
My favorite part of HOSA its strong community
and opportunity to develop our passions. I
contribute to HOSA by updating the website and
planning club meetings. Besides HOSA, I enjoy
coding and investing.
Aditya Bhattacharya: Vice President
My favorite part of HOSA is its SLC trips. As an
officer, I help plan meeting content. In my spare
time, I love to watch movies & play basketball.
Mohnish Mistry: Secretary
My favorite part of HOSA is connecting with peers,
especially at SLC. As Secretary, I record meeting
notes and manage communications. Besides
HOSA, I enjoy hiking, cooking, & watching movies.
Sonal Churiwal: Reporter
The most impactful part of HOSA for me is the
diverse array of medical workshops at SLC. As
reporter, I create communication and social media
content. Besides HOSA, I enjoy debating, baking,
& reading.
Rhea Sharma: Creative Director
In HOSA, I really enjoy planning events and being
able to welcome guest speakers to our chapter. As
Creative Director, I handle our chapter's social
media. Besides HOSA, I love to dance and watch
different shows!
Naeema Quereshi: Upperclassmen Rep
My favorite part of HOSA is having a group of
people with common interests that share your
passion. As officer I oversee communications with
upperclassmen members to share our message. I
love to further educate myself about healthcare
even outside of HOSA.
Selena Diabiase: Upperclassmen Rep
One thing I like about HOSA and the group of
people who have my same interest. As an officer I
have answered many questions from our peers.
Some of my hobbies outside of HOSA include
cheer, soccer and hanging out with friends.
Pallavi Dokka: Underclassmen Rep
My favorite part of HOSA is the friendships that are
made along the journey of being a club member!
Outside of HOSA, I enjoy dance and music.
Eric Liu: Underclassmen Rep
Through HOSA, I'm able to explore my
interests in medicine and help others do
the same. Outside of HOSA, I enjoy
fencing and reading!
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 WeCare Cards
By: Rhea Sharma
Doctors, physicians, nurses, surgeons, and so many other
front-line workers at hospitals contribute so greatly to our
community on a daily basis, especially in light of the unique
circumstance brought upon by COVID-19. Imagine spending
over 8 hours in a surgical gown, surgical mask, N-95
respirator mask, face shield, and several layers of gloves. This
is the basic PPE that the healthcare staff has to wear in their
workplace, even while working overtime shifts. Some of us
have only worn a mask on a quick trip to the grocery store!
Healthcare professionals put their patients first, families second, and their own lives at
the most immediate risk, just to serve others. The least we can do is thank and appreciate
them, which is exactly what our HOSA Chapter sought out to do through this community
program, WeCare Cards. They deliver handmade cards to local hospitals, where these
tokens of appreciation are distributed to the healthcare staff. By partnering with them,
our HOSA Chapter was able to deliver over 100 handmade thank-you cards to the Emory
Hospital in Johns Creek! In these strenuous times, we continue to seize opportunities like
this that can make even the smallest impact on our community.

3D PPE
By: Tanvi Vedula
From cheering them after work to offering free meals, everyone is finding their own way to
support front-line workers amidst this pandemic. Richard Kim, a guest speaker at Northview
HOSA, and his team made their mark by using 3D printers to make personal protective
equipment to distribute to clinical settings. Kim and his friends began their mission to deliver
quality face shields 8 months ago, at the peak of the pandemic. Since then, they have raised
$13,000 and delivered 5,000 face shields. Their 3D printed face shields are designed on a
software called Cura and made using PLA filament, consisting of a plastic band and a reusable
plastic visor. After multiple attempts, Kim finally designed a visor matching FDA guidelines that
could be comfortably worn for a long time. After printing the shields, Kim works to transport
them to hospitals, not just in Georgia, but Florida, New York, Texas, and even other countries.
However, 3DPPE will not meet its end with the pandemic. Kim is currently working on designing
ear savers; post-COVID he intends on continuing to print other medical items, such as
ventilator parts. Introducing guest speakers like Richard Kim to Northview HOSA has helped
our members learn about new ways to get involved in healthcare, and expand their knowledge of
a unique aspect of healthcare.
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 Emory Internship
By: Thomas Cronin
Ever since Ms. Katz's "Disease Detective" unit in 5th grade, my
interest in epidemiology and public health has only gone upwards.
Given my experience from summer coursework relating to
epidemiology at Johns Hopkins and Brown University, in
November 2019 I was presented with the lifetime of an opportunity
to meet Dr. Julie Gazmararian, chair of the Epidemiology
Department at Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health. After being
introduced, Dr. Gazmararian expressed interest in mentoring me and put me in touch with
several public health professionals for interviews, including two former chairs of the CDC and
Dr. James Curran, leader of the original AIDS task force at the CDC. While the paths they each
took to arrive at their career varied greatly, the one constant part of their story was beginning a
public health career by serving the community. This advice gave me great focus for my next
steps. I was already spending my summers taking extra classes and I have participated in HOSA;
naturally, the next step was to get first-hand field experience. While COVID-19 made this
impossible in summer 2020, I was presented with an alternative opportunity. Dr. Gazmararian
and I discussed the potential effects of quarantine on young teenagers, referencing my personal
experiences in spring 2020. Eventually, I asked her about the viability of a survey regarding the
emotional and physical effects of COVID-19 on high school students. Fascinated by the idea, Dr.
Gazmararian generously offered to help recruit schools for participation if I created the base
survey. I sent her a draft, but was returned a survey outline covered in red lines and
suggestions. Just like that, I was learning via the rich teacher of experience. I learned advanced
survey and question techniques, such as how to work questions to maximize response rates and
increase clarity. As the potential for my project grew, I now had three mentors and a budget by
Emory University, becoming the first high school student hired as a paid research intern by
Emory in the span of just a few months. What originally started as report on the general effects
of COVID-19 developed into a detailed study of how quarantine influenced sleep patterns, mental
health, emotional health, and physical health. My three mentors patiently taught me how to
create data tables for the surveys and how to manipulate them using SAS. I soon learnt to
interpret the data and mine for key points that appeal to readers. Lastly, I learned how to write
surveys to be easily understood. After hours of hard work, my survey is being published in the
Journal of School Health.
What stuck with me most throughout this experience is how eager professionals are to help
students like me. The number one lesson I hope this imparts on my readers is that my
experience is replicable. Cultivate and live your passion, research people of accomplishment in
your chosen field, and then take the risk and attempt to communicate your passion to them.
Having a mentor like Julie has changed my life completely. I am orders of magnitude more
passionate about my future and connected in a way that makes it 100% real for me now.

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 Albany Presentation
By: Sonal Churiwal
The Pharmaceutical Research Institute from the
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
(ACPHS) hosts the BRIDGE Event annually, where high
school students present research, whether that be
experimental or simply a literature review, on a wide
variety of medical topics. Every year, there are several
highly esteemed professors in attendance, including Dr.
Shaker Mousa from ACPHS and Dr. Samuel Goldhaber
from Harvard University. For several years, the Global
Thrombosis Forum (GTF), an organization intended to
raise awareness about thrombosis in the community sends highly ambitious volunteers to the
BRIDGE Event. As a long time member of GTF, this year I attended the ACPHS virtual BRIDGE
Event to present my research on “COVID-19 and Venous Thromboembolism (VTE)”, which was
completed with the three other colleagues from GTF and was awarded first place.
Since its inception in Wuhan, China, COVID-19 has rapidly spread
across the world, becoming the utmost important concern for
several medical institutions. As more and more cases of COVID-19
are being reported, it is becoming apparent that VTE is indeed a
common complication of the virus. Indeed, a study from Dr. Kloka
and his colleagues reports a 27% incidence rate of VTE. Moreover,
despite receiving proper thromboprophylaxis and anticoagulants,
31% of COVID patients in the intensive care units suffered from
thrombotic complications. After reviewing several studies such as .
Dr. Kloka’s, it was concluded that thrombosis seems to be a more prominent issue in COVID
patients than risks of bleeding. However, despite receiving standard prophylaxis, thrombosis
remained a prominent issue, necessitating case-by-case analysis to carefully administer
anticoagulants.

Overall, attending the BRIDGE Event at ACPHS was an

invaluable experience for me. While the weeks leading up to
the presentation were filled with lessons about teamwork
and a plethora information about the coagulation cascade
and blood clot formation, the hours of work came to
fruition at the event. Not only was I able to learn about the
research that other like-minded high schoolers were doing,
but I was given the once in a lifetime opportunity to speak
to highly esteemed medical professors.
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 Vaccine Hesitancy
By: Maansi Manoj
The newly released COVID-19 vaccine is all anyone can talk about
these days, it offers a chance for the world to go back to normal, a
curtain call at the end of this devastating travesty. Since December
13th, over 35 million vaccine doses have been distributed throughout
the general population, an extraordinary effort in only a few month
span. Created by Pfizer and Moderna, the FDA has approved of the
vaccine’s use under an Emergency Use Authorization, which has
shown considerable promise as they do not have infectious material
in them. Though side effects crop up for some people, the vaccine .
overall is a positive force in our lives. America has had a complex relationship to vaccines,
fearing them as a potential way for governments to control our bodies. This fear is especially
prevalent in minority communities who have had incredible harm done to them by the medical
establishments, from America’s dark history in eugenics, to the discriminatory practices
followed by doctors that have been made regular facets in many of their lives. A poll found that
only 55% of Black Americans said they would take a vaccine if it was proven safe and effective by
officials.
Since much of the work to create the vaccine was done under the
Trump administration, many of the country’s minority fear of
potential foul play, as the Trump Administration has historically not
been on the kinder side towards the different kinds of people who
have made this land their home. Misinformation is prevalent all
around us, in Facebook advertisements, in news articles, in the
stories that people tell. Politicians use fear mongering tactics to help
their own agendas. When false information comes from trusted
figures such as these, the effects are staggering. COVID-19 has hurt
the minority community at disproportionate levels, as many essential workers are part of the
minority community. For many people in this pandemic, the stimulus checks that were given
out were not enough to sufficiently make ends meet and thus, people were forced to go out and
work, despite the dangers of the pandemic. For this reason, many minority
groups have particularly been hit hard by the coronavirus and it is
paramount that the misinformation surrounding the vaccine is made
ineffectual by educating the people around us, making sure to share
information from only trusted sources, and by listening to the CDC for
future instructions and guidelines. The coronavirus has long plagued our
borders, taking thousands of lives along with it. Together, as a community,
we can all do our part to help fight against it and end these nightmarish
times.

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 Water Crises
By: Eileen Chen
The Flint River scribbles 142 miles through Michigan, flanked by concrete
slopes, industrial buildings, and leafy corridors. On April 25, 2014, in efforts to
save money, the city of Flint, Michigan ended its five-decade practice of utilizing
treated water from nearby Detroit’s system, switching to the local Flint River.
However, what soon unfolded was a substantial public health crisis as lead-
contaminated water seeped into the water supply of thousands of residents. For
more than a century, the Flint River had served as an unofficial waste disposal site
for local industries that sprouted along its shores. To counter the high levels of
bacteria, chlorine disinfectants were often administered, which also made the river more acidic.
The result was the acidic water corroding aging lead pipes, causing concentrations of lead over 25
times higher than the federal “action level” for taking corrective action. Lead is a potent
neurotoxin, with well-documented adverse effects such as damage to the brain and nervous
system, slowed growth and development, and hearing and speech problems. Consequently, high
blood lead levels are especially harmful to children due to its extensive neurological effects. In
adults, prolonged exposure to lead increases risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney
disease, and reduced fertility. Unfortunately, there is no cure or antidote to lead poisoning, but
measures can be taken to decrease its effects.
To combat the water crisis, Flint switched back to the Detroit water system in 2015, but health
effects from lead exposure remained, prompting the city to launch a rehabilitation campaign;
more than 8,000 lead service lines have been replaced so far, with state and federal funds for
repairs and social services already having totaled over half a billion dollars. The city is also building
programs involving education and nutrition to support children so they can overcome future
challenges posed by lead exposure. While remediation continues, skepticism persists regarding
water quality; bottled water remains high in demand, and thousands of Flint residents still receive
their water from lead pipes. However, Flint is undoubtedly moving from crisis to recovery, and the
progress the city has made is undeniable.

Our Future Vision

Northview HOSA envisions a future with a larger member base to help spread our message
further, while providing a more immersive experience for existing members. Our hope is to delve
more into community work, offering unique opportunities such as blood drives and running
fundraisers to donate to non-profits relating to
medicine. HOSA hopes to foster a more positive
environment for all aspiring healthcare professionals at
HOSA by supporting other small clubs relating to
medicine. As always, we will keep pushing out
boundaries to be the best we possibly can!
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