Why am I even blogging?

This is me.

I hate blogging about this, almost as much as I hate the word blogging itself. Words on a computer screen have limited meaning. They are two-dimensional. They are pixels. People aren't. I am not, nor are those that I will meet over the next year.

As for me, I am an introvert. I hate attention. I like listening, not sharing. This is the first time I've put my feelings on a public medium; however, many of my friends tell me this is a great way to express myself. (Says Chukwukpee Nzegwu whose LinkedIn is found here, he literally wrote this sentence)

I believe in a physical journal. Anytime you write something in a blog, however, you weigh every word. Either explicitly or implicitly, you filter your emotions and thoughts. In hopes of not doing so, I will share pictures and videos to offer a less filtered view of my journey.

The real question, though, is what am I doing over this year. Well, its called the Keegan Fellowship. Everyone talks about traveling the world; few actually do. I am incredibly fortunate to have this opportunity in the context of a project that is shaped by who I am, what I have done, and what I want to do.

The title of my project is Reengineering Access: Translational Challenges and Culture Considerations of Western Medical Technology. My interests are twofold. One, as a biomedical engineer, I am interested in the technical challenges that influence the spread of Western medical technology. What technical challenges exist in the transfer of medical technology when taken (and often developed in and for) from high-resource settings to low-resource settings? What constitutes a low-resource setting? What strategies have been successfully implemented? What strategies have failed?

The second part of my project is much more interesting personally. Implicit in my project statement is the idea that Western medical technology is spreading. and by extension, that a different medical tradition is being displaced in the process. As such, I am interested in how people of different cultures interface with technology different. Why do certain cultures embrace Western medicine rapidly, and others do not? How does this process happen? Who do people view as authorities on medicine when Western medicine and technology disrupt societies?

I have many questions, and many more that I haven't even formulated yet. In addition, the greatest part of this opportunity is that I can adapt and experience my learning experience to best complement what I find to be the case once I begin. As for what I hope to take away from this, I hope to become better equipped as an engineer of the very purposeful considerations that I, and those around me, should make in order to design solutions that can be applied to address these challenges.