PreMedSKL Summer - Emergency Medicine

PreMedSKL is a virtual mentorship program for high school students founded by internationally renowned physician Dr. Sanjay Sharma. Every two weeks, students participate in immersive half-day sessions where they work through real clinical cases using the SOAP framework (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan) to develop structured diagnostic reasoning skills.

In the Emergency Medicine module, students step into the fast-paced world of the hospital emergency department, where decisions must be made quickly and accurately. They learn how physicians evaluate high-risk symptoms like chest pain, distinguishing between traumatic injuries and medical emergencies such as heart attacks. Students explore how the body responds to fever at the cellular level, understand when insect bites are harmless versus dangerous, and examine the differences between blunt and penetrating trauma as well as the four major types of burns. Through virtual patient simulations — including coordination testing and emergency triage scenarios — students practice identifying life-threatening red flags and learn how structured clinical thinking guides rapid, lifesaving decisions.