Tan Tao University
Tan Duc eCity, VN,
Acting Provost
Tan Tao Univ
School of Medicine
Academic Dean
Interventional Cardiology Grand Rounds, NY NY
Co-Editor-in-Chief
J of Geriat Card,
J of Interv Card, Chinese Medical J, Editorial consultant
Methodist Hospital Merrillville, IN Director
of CV Research
Society of Cardiovasc Angiography and Intervention, WDC
Co-Chair,
International Committee
Hanoi Medical U.
*Vietnam Heart Institute
Hanoi VN.
*Chao Yang H,
*301 PLA Hospital,
The Institute of Geriatric Cardiology, *Friendship Hosp
Beijing CN
*Tenth People’s H
Shanghai CN
*Nanjing U First Teaching Hospital
Nanjing, CN
Honorary
Professor
of Medicine
Indiana U School of
Medicine NW
Clinical Assistant
Professor
Tan Tao University Long An January 3rd, 2018
To Physician and Student Advisors
REF: Instructions regarding the High School Scientific Competition January 14, 2018
As Einstein emphasized: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
The first important point of the competition is for the high school (HS) students to show good understanding and to present clearly (easy to understand) the problems and solutions of a medical condition to a committee (of which three out of four are not medical personnel).
The second important point is for the participants to present how to apply this information to other medical or non- medical fields. This is called translational medicine which is defined as a rapidly growing discipline in biomedical research that aims to expedite the discovery of new diagnostic tools and treatments by using a multi-disciplinary, highly collaborative, “bench-to-bedside” approach.
The third important point of the competition is for the participants to present innovative and provocative ideas using the methodology or the medical problem just presented. If the participants have no new ideas on these problems, she or he can select any new, innovative and provocative ideas on medical issues to present to the committee.
At the beginning, each HS student will select one subject and she or he will contact one of you (most likely the student advisor first) so the advisor can meet the candidate and explain the medical problem. These medical subjects are common knowledge and not too difficult for a student to understand and master within one week. However, you should show the HS student where to find the information and request that they give you a summary of their searches and discuss what they understand with you. Your responsibility is to guide the HS student. As such, you don’t give all the answers. You show where to find them. This is the American way of education. You don’t do the work for the students.
After that, you ask the students about the ramifications or practical applications of what they have discovered. Ask them to find innovative and provocative answers. This is the beauty of the competition. We teach the HS students how to think, how to do critical thinking, how to expand their imagination, and how to make their dreams become a reality. While we help the HS students, we learn many things that are new and interesting too. This is why I ask you to help the HS students first, and to help ourselves next. I myself will review the presentations of the HS students because I like learning something new as well.
Following your discussions with the HS students, you have to help them with how to present the data. This is an art we have to learn in life too. Now we have a product, how do we market it? This time, we are selling new ideas. Each HS student will learn how to present the data and then talk about what they can apply in life or in other medical situations with the data they learn. They need to show innovative and provocative answers because they are the keys for success in this current competitive world. This is the most important part. We don’t produce a no brainer, we train intelligent and very promising human minds. This is a learning experience for the HS students and for us. As we are advisors and organizers, we have to thank the HS students because when we work with them, we learn more and improve ourselves too.
Again, please remember that the most important part is to have the new ideas. The second part is to then convince the judges about these new ideas, to sell them these new ideas for a big profit. It should be a fun and exciting experience for the students and ourselves.
I wish all of you a GREAT new year and enjoy the first out of many challenging and exciting projects Tan Tao University offers in 2018.
With my warmest personal regards,
Thach Nguyen MD FACC FSCAI
Acting Provost, Tan Tao U
Dean, School of Medicine, Tan Tao U
