Second-year medical student Mohammad Qureshi spent his summer researching the effect of Parkinson's disease at the UF Movement Disorders Clinic. Photo by Priscilla Santos

Rather than traveling and relaxing during their last free summer in medical school, some College of Medicine students  embarked on research projects instead. Second-year medical student Mohammad Qureshi is one of them.

Qureshi became fascinated with neurology during the neuroanatomy course he took his first year. That fascination led him to pursue a service project in that field.

The summer began, and the 23-year-old found himself working 40 “rewarding hours a week” at the Movement Disorders Center under Kenneth M. Heilman, M.D., distinguished professor of neurology & health psychology in the department of neurology. In addition to working in the clinic, where the young medical student saw patients with Parkinson’s disease, Qureshi conducted research on the effect, if any, Parkinson’s disease has beyond the motor deficits. He was looking to see if the disease affects how patients conceptualize sequencing actions, and how they behave.

So far, he wouldn’t trade being at the beach for the experiences his gained this summer working on the research project, he says.

“I remember one patient that was not participating fully in the study,” explains Qureshi. “I decided to withdraw him from the study. Afterward, he apologized and told me he had recently found out about his disease and was too depressed to concentrate because of it. We sat and talked for 10 minutes, and though it didn’t help me in the study, it made all the difference for the person to have someone listen to his problems.”

That’s something medical school classes can’t teach you, he says.

“Although I’ve been working, this summer has been very refreshing,” Qureshi says. “Everyone has warned me about how scary the second year is, but I’m prepared to move forward.”