Folded in the black and white blur of cardiac ultrasounds are countless details.
From the size of heart valves to warning signs of a heart attack, those ultrasounds can reveal essential information about the life of a patient.
For senior Saja Necibi, viewing those images confirmed her passion for the world of science and health care and gave her a glimpse into the future of her career.
As an intern of Dr. Senthil Kumar, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Missouri Hospital from June to September, Necibi assisted with a clinical research project regarding cardiovascular health and specifically, atrial fibrillation, a type of abnormal heartbeat.
“The first time that Dr. Kumar even explained to me what [atrial fibrillation] was, I just kind of went home and I literally Googled it,” Necibi said. “[I] learned what is atrial fibrillation and what can cause it and stuff like that.”
Comparing two different forms of cardiac imaging, the goal of the research project was to determine if the less invasive of the two was still as effective in spotting clots in the heart before shocking a patient’s heart back to a normal rhythm.
Already drawn toward an internship that revolved around research, Necibi began seeking opportunities at the University of Missouri Hospital. Reaching out to researchers and physicians, Necibi finally found Dr. Kumar and began an internship with him.
“[She] was very punctual and enthusiastic,” Dr. Kumar said in an email interview. “She exhibited knowledge and understanding, which I was surprised to see in a high school student.”
Devoting 12 hours each week to Dr. Kumar’s work, Necibi spent  90 hours exploring the facets of clinical research and participating in tasks that ranged from collecting data to gaining first-hand experience interacting with patients.
“We were actually performing an echocardiogram on a patient in the ICU and Dr. Kumar had decided to spend some extra time with the patient to try to figure out what was wrong with her … and so we spent some extra time carrying out the echocardiogram,” Necibi said. “I actually got to capture the images for it and we found that she had a [Ventricular Septal Defect], which is a hole in her heart. It was a life-threatening condition and so it was really interesting to directly help save someone’s life.”
A Transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) is essentially an ultrasound of the heart chamber and valves, which can give physicians an overview on the general health of a patient’s heart.
Connected to the echocardiogram, the ultrasound machine, are probes. After applying gel onto the probes, the healthcare provider then guides the probe down esophagus — or the throat — of the patient. Since the esophagus is directly behind the heart, physicians can receive a more detailed image.
“Although an ultrasound of the heart seems really simple, it was just a blurry black and white image to me,” Necibi said.
Along with interacting with  different patients, Necibi also assisted in organizing data and writing an abstract — a summary of the research plan — and submitting it to the University of Missouri Health Sciences Research Day.
With a limit of 250 words, Necibi was faced with creating a snapshot that could still fully explain the goals and procedures of Dr. Kumar’s research project.
“Basically, I just described what was going on in our research: what types of patients we’re working with, age groups and also how we obtained our data and how we were able to analyze it and come up with conclusions for it,” Necibi said. “The deadline was in September, but we’re waiting to hear back about the abstract.”
Necibi’s internship with Dr. Kumar isn’t the first encounter she’s had with the field of healthcare.

After learning about mitosis and cancer cells in biology, Necibi’s passion for science encouraged her to apply to a program called Tomorrow’s Healthcare Elite.
“After joining Healthcare Elite, we really got to job shadow lots of different professions in healthcare,” Necibi said. “Through that I knew it was solidified that I wanted to go into [healthcare].”
With so many departments to choose from in the field of healthcare, Necibi is leaning towards becoming an oncologist — a physician who treats cancer.
Finding her source of inspiration in one of her multitude of internships, Necibi hopes to help patients move past hardship and pain.
“One of the things that has made me interested in oncology is I was with the patient and oncologist in the room when the patient got a really bad diagnosis for her and her family and it was just so moving,” Necibi said. “I just felt like I wanted to do that for people; I wanted to help people like that.”
By Alice Yu
From mentor to colleague: Saja Necibi works with Dr. Senthil Kumar, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Missouri Hospital, to gain experience. Photo by Sury Rawat.