Leonardo Aguilar, MS ’24 works for NEXT Oncology in Dallas, TX. After earning a Graduate Certificate at McWilliams, he continued his education at the school and completed the MS program in Spring of 2024.
Why did you apply to McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics for your MS degree?
I applied to the McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics for two main reasons. The positive reputation of the school and the success that I read about while searching for a graduate program to enroll in when looking at Biomedical Informatics master's degrees. The second was how well the curriculum was tailored to a remote environment. I worked full time and needed a flexible schedule/ program, which was very well created by the team at McWilliams.
What was your favorite course at McWilliams and why did you enjoy it?
My favorite course at McWilliams would have to be Foundations of Electronic Health Records and Clinical Information Systems with Dr. Ross. First and foremost, I truly enjoyed the structure of this course with plenty of hands-on assignments mimicking an EHR environment as well as a group and independent project that really allowed us to put our knowledge into practice. I was only a little familiar with EHR's and Clinical Information Systems prior to this class, but this class really gave me a lot of real-world, applicable knowledge.
Tell us about your practicum experience. What project did you complete and who was your faculty practicum advisor?
My practicum advisor was Dr. Pora Kim. Overall, my practicum experience was very fun and insightful. Dr. Kim held regular weekly meetings to update the entire team on the next steps for all projects and opened the floor for questions regarding our projects. Dr. Kim provided all the tools I needed to be successful in my practicum. I did my practicum remotely and there was a lot of support and structure in place to be able to successfully complete a practicum remotely.
What is your current role/position? Can you tell us what your daily work looks like?
I currently work as a Clinical Research Coordinator for Phase I oncology clinical trials. My daily work consists of helping patients enroll into clinical trials and that involves working with the clinicians and all of the support staff to gather all patient information from various sources to help them get on to trials they are eligible for.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
In five years, I see myself continuing to work in the research field and ideally working in a more data centric role. I want to work in role where I will be able to combine all that I learned in my graduate program as well as everything I have learned in my basic science and clinical research background.
Give us some information on a lasting lesson your learned while studying at McWilliams.
A long-lasting lesson I have learned while studying at McWilliams is to never stop asking questions. Asking questions is the basis of research and how we seek advancement in everything. The staff at McWilliams always welcomed students to ask as many questions as possible and that allowed me to be successful in the program.