BioE Student Summer Check-in: Synthia Layous
This article was written by Juliana M., a Bioengineering undergraduate student and student office worker in the Department of Bioengineering.
Synthia Layous is a rising sophomore bioengineering major interning at Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) and Jefferson Health this summer, working as a Summer Research Scholar.
Synthia is running her own independent research project inside LVHN's rehabilitation department, digging into a question that sits at the intersection of clinical practice and hospital administration: why don't more clinicians get involved in research and quality improvement (QI) projects?
QI is LVHN's answer to a common problem in healthcare: clinicians often see ways to make patient care safer, faster, or more effective, but pursuing that through formal research usually means going through an Institutional Review Board (IRB), a slow and demanding process. QI offers a simpler path to test and implement those improvements without the full IRB pipeline. LVHN has even built an advisory board to help clinicians access this pathway, but despite making the process easier, participation still lags.
To find out why, Synthia designed and distributed two surveys: one for clinicians who haven't gotten involved in QI, to discover whether the barrier is awareness, lack of QI training, or that the process still feels too demanding. A second survey asks clinicians who have participated about their experiences and outcomes. She's now running statistical analysis to pin down which barrier shows up most strongly. Her next project will examine whether and how patients actually improve as a result of QI initiatives.
To balance out her work, Synthia's schedule combines independent research time with structured mentorship and professional development. She has regular one-on-ones with her mentor, dedicated days to work solo on her project, and her favorite part of the week: Thursdays, when LVHN's Department of Education brings in speakers for the interns that cover professional development topics such as the IRB approval processes, presentation skills, and proper citation practice. One Thursday, Coca-Cola brought together interns from across the region for talks and a community volunteering event. Beyond her own project, she shadows clinicians in the rehab department, including speech pathologists, to get a firsthand look at patient care.
Synthia first heard about the internship through a Lehigh GroupMe. She was drawn to rehabilitation research because of how closely it connects to bioengineering, and the experience has already reshaped her sense of where she wants to take her career. At the start of her internship, Synthia had her mind made up on going into the pharmaceutical industry, but her time in the rehab department has opened her eyes to career paths she didn't know existed, and she's now especially interested in exploring biomaterials.
LVHN expects a lot of its interns, and the work is largely self-directed. Synthia says statistical analysis has been the toughest part of the summer, but also one of the most rewarding. She's also had to grow into a role that requires interviewing clinicians and department leads, which felt intimidating at first but has gotten easier with practice. Along the way, she's picked up new software and systems, including REDCAPP and EPIC, the healthcare system used for clinical documentation. Synthia is looking forward to getting closer to the patient side of her research to see firsthand how QI initiatives translate into better quality of life and stronger clinician-patient relationships.
She strongly encourages other students to apply broadly and not talk themselves out of opportunities before they even try. She didn't expect to get the position, but she did out of roughly 500 applicants. She's the youngest intern in her cohort, alongside other Lehigh students and interns from schools around the country, some pre-med, some in finance, working on projects ranging from HR research to surgical shadowing.
