End of June 2016
Alright, let’s take a quick trip back. Between data collection, learning all there is to know about excel, and studying for the MCAT, it has been hard to find time to make myself dinner let alone update this wonderful blog (shoutout the other wonderful Newcomb women who have been).
What I do on the day to day
Many of you first timers may not know the difference between clinical and basic or applied research. In terms of medicine and science, applied research is what you likely think of when some mentions research. It can involve a huge range of things from editing genetic makeup of a cell in hopes of finding a cure for a form of cancer to developing a vaccine to Zika virus. While I do not do that type of research, it is absolutely essential to the proliferation of knowledge and bettering of medicine. I conduct clinical research. My form of clinical research involves collecting ~800 data points worth of information per patient pertaining to their demographics, pre-existing conditions, in-hospital laboratory values, treatment, discharge information, and more. Using this data allows us to conduct retrospective research on any of the variables. This, in turn, enables the doctors at Tulane to ameliorate treatment techniques and reduce costs to patients.
Much of my work involves using Meditech to collect the data pertaining to each patient and translating that to usable data. Many may think it is boring to stare at a computer screen and collect the same thing over and over again, but it is far from it. Each patient is completely different from the last. Each with a whole new set of illnesses, previous surgeries, different socioeconomic class, unique social network, all of which contribute to a distinct course of stroke. Reading the neurologists’, occupational and physical therapists’, emergency responders’, and other doctors’ notes about the patients are each drastically different than the last and present the patient like a mystery to be solved.
Current goals – Beginning of July 2016
Now, we are working on a project involving Metabolic Syndrome. Based on the American Heart Association, Metabolic Syndrome patients are characterized by if they have three of the four criteria: history of hypertension or diabetes, or triglycerides ≥ 150 mg/dl, or high density lipoprotein < 50 mg/dl for women and < 40 mg/dl for men. To be updated once we set up the excel workbook and conduct linear regression analysis… And with that, I will sign off for now. To be continued.