Learner Profile
Raadhika Madala

HMX Courses

Biochemistry, Physiology

When Raadhika Madala decided to make a career change from writing and website development to medical coding, she didn’t know quite where it would lead. She soon realized that her interest in medicine went deeper than she’d first thought. Then her sister became ill, and she felt frustrated about not being able to get the answers her family needed from the doctors overseeing her care. These factors led her to pursue further education with an eye toward medical school; HMX Biochemistry and Physiology were the first step. “It really changed my entire life,” says Raadhika.

Definitely the first thing that stands out are the clinical setting videos. That’s a really great, unique thing that HMX has; it takes everything you learned in the video lectures and just applies it. It was a really nice humanitarian aspect that was added with the patients – it was wonderful to see how everything you learned helped with their treatment and their care.

I really enjoyed the cath lab in Physiology; it was just amazing to see the actual catheter be inserted in two different ways, and to see the heart muscle and the chambers and the arteries in relation to the way the patient was lying, that was pretty nice.

In Biochemistry, I really liked how both of the professors would speak with each other and really connect the course [topics]. Dr. Bonham did the video lectures, and often it was Dr. Hamnvik who did the clinical settings. And [Dr. Marie McDonnell] was great, and she helped show us new ways to test blood glucose levels, so that was interesting. I also liked how the patient with diabetes was a physician herself, because it was interesting to see her perspective of her care and her dialogue with the doctor.

The assessments – I actually would’ve loved more questions even. I really enjoyed the questions, they were challenging and really thought-provoking; they made you think at least 10 steps ahead. You become intrigued and you just want to learn more. They’re not just straightforward answers. I also liked that it wasn’t all multiple choice, you also had fill-in-the-blank and short answers – it was nice variety. The questions were nice and challenging, and if anything I would like to have more.

I actually read the explanations for the questions that I even got right, and they were great – they were concise and straightforward, you understand exactly what it was you got wrong. I was never too far off the mark, which is a testament to the actual video lectures.

It was perfectly challenging. I had taken a chemistry class in college which was a while ago. I don’t think that I spent too much more time than I would’ve had I had the course before. For physiology I finished those lessons faster and it was probably because I’d taken anatomy before, but I didn’t find biochemistry that much more challenging. It never made me feel frustrated, or that it was cutting into my life. I definitely give credit to the video lectures – while the material in nature is difficult, the lectures themselves were perfectly timed to present the material without being an overload. Also they were paced well, so it wasn’t like the professor spoke too fast. The bullet points at the bottom of the videos really helped to hone in on what to pay attention to in that particular lecture.

The most important thing to me is learning. I just don’t believe you should be in the field of health care and have people’s lives in your hands if you don’t know what you’re doing. It was so interesting, I had never taken biochemistry before and I found it fascinating, and I really wanted to understand. If I didn’t understand a concept, I would just take a break and let my brain think with it and I would come back to it and it would make sense. And that’s a great feeling and you can just expand upon that and learn more.

I was nervous about taking both of these classes because it had been awhile since I’d been in a proper school setting; it’d been awhile since I’d really studied and taken exams. I wanted to see if I would do well and if it would hold my interest, and it really furthered my interest and my motivation to go ahead and pursue both a post-bacc program and medical school down the road.

It really changed my entire life. It was one of the main reasons why I’m interested in pursuing research opportunities at different labs and even medical coding. I know it’s a different aspect of the field, but I think it helps if you’re a physician to understand when you’re dealing with a patient and thinking about their financial background, what treatment options and care to give. It’s interesting how it can all connect. HMX definitely strengthened my interest and resolve to go ahead and pursue the path of health care.