A Taste of Grey's Anatomy in Ann Arbor

Have you ever watched those medical shows with those handsome doctors who talk oh so lovely to their patients to enroll them into a clinical trial they are conducting? Well that's what my life has been like this summer except for the lack of a McDreamy hair cut and the fooling around with medical interns in the on-call room.

These past 8 weeks, I've been at the Taubman General Medicine Clinic at the University of Michigan Health System Hospital doing a study with the Pharmacists and Physicians on where their patients go to obtain their prescription medications. Co-blogger Alex Tungol actually did a similar study 2 years ago with Dr. Erickson through the summer MCRiT program as well. This gives me the ability to compare my results with hers, after I analyze my data with statistics. It will be interesting to see if any trends have developed in the two years. It's been a while since I've taken Statistics (and I never knew how significant it is to research) so this provides an opportunity to freshen up in my Excel and SPSS programing. Once I get my results, Dr. Erickson and I will analyze it, make a research poster, write a paper on it, and hopefully get published in a scientific journal!

For this project, specifically we're looking at whether the Recession and the two year advertisement campaign of the $4 inexpensive generic programs offered by major chain pharmacies ( such as Kroger, Walmart, and Target) have had any effect on the behavior of general medicine patients of where they go to get their prescriptions filled. We'll also be able to see if these incentive program have lead to increased medication adherence and other prescription behaviors. Furthermore, this outcome research affects the Physicians and Pharmacists directly at the Taubman Medical Clinic because many have been pushing their patients to utilize these types of prescription programs.

My primary job these past 8 weeks have been to enroll patients into the study. I've been humbled to say the least. From this experience, I now understand how difficult it is to enroll patients into any study - whether it be a simple 15 minute psychology study or a complicated clinical trial involving a new experimental drug for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. What I found to be alarming is that there are thousands of studies that are going on at UofM right now, but each year many studies lose their funding because they do not enroll sufficient patients the grant requires for their federal funding. This explains why I'm always bombarded with fliers (and now e-mails) asking me to participate in a study with cash incentives or ipod giveaways. It's serious business. And quite stressful if you're the clinical coordinator in charge of getting enough patients for the study. Your funding depends on it!

My study required me to enroll ~200 patients. To say it bluntly, I've never been rejected so many times in my life. Some days were good, others were not so good. Great days were when I enrolled 17 patients into the study and walked out of the clinic triumphantly! But there were many days when I only got 4 or 5 patients in a span of six hours at clinic and left feeling dejected. I guess in research, some days things will go your way, but other days they won't. The important thing is to persevere, not quit, and plan for the unexpected. A quote by Louis Pasteur provides insight : "luck favors the prepared."

One thing this research project has allowed me to do is to talk to patients again - something I haven't done so much since my days working at a community pharmacy. I'll be the first to admit, I do not have McDreamy hair or a McSteamy body, but I love to talk with people. My chief duties was to provide informed consent - specifically that the study was completely voluntarily and that there would be no benefit for participating. Since there was no compensation, I had to win them over with my McTastic smile! :)

I learned as much from the patients as they learned from me. I met at clinic a professional baker who explained to me the science of baking by enlightening me with how it's as much science as art - do not add too much salt when baking bread or the yeast will die and your dough won't rise! I met at clinic a couple who crossed the Canadian border monthly to get some of their prescriptions because of the drastic savings. And I even ran into the Dean of Admissions of the College of Pharmacy, Dean Perry, at clinic! She graciously volunteered to participate in my study (see the re-enactment picture at the end of the post)!

To pass the time on those extra slow days, I created activities to keep myself busy. I read.....a lot, and I kept a journal each day at clinic to record my observations and my thoughts. This practice is a good habit to develop now in my young professional career - to write down every observation I see in research. They are great resources to go back to when I write my final report but also helped pass the time on those extra slow days of research. I've found research to be a slow, methodical, surgical process....but without this process there would be no good science that results from it. I'll be keeping Louis Pasteur's famous words in mind: Luck favors the prepared.

If anyone has questions about MCRiT send an e-mail to me at : cqtruong@umich.edu