Next Steps...

Hey guys,

It feels like it’s been forever since I last updated. Life’s been busy with my friend’s wedding this past weekend and the week prior was my group’s Final presentation at the North Campus Research Complex (NCRC). I’m happy to say that the presentation went well! The grueling 3 hour meetings late into the evening to plan and prep helped immensely as our group walked out relatively unscathed from the barrage of questions from our Alzheimer's-Depression presentation for the senior clinical researchers, coordinators, and PI’s present in the audience.

Here is a picture of my awesome team.


Dr. Charles Burant, aka Chuck, if you’re reading this, thank you, thank you again for your dedication to mentoring our group. You definitely lead us, pushed us, and your experience with writing research grants helped us immensely as we were able to correctly predict what type of questions the audience were going to ask before the actual presentation. We were well prepared. Also, your enthusiasm is a rarity and I hardly see anyone who loves their job more.

Yesterday was my last day at the Taubman General Medicine clinic. I’ve reached the quota of patients and now shift my research responsibility focus into data entry and writing. I have over 200 surveys that I need to input into an Excel spreadsheet, then play around with the SPSS statistical software, and finally see what data I’ve obtained. Then I’ll write an abstract (due in a week, another deadline!), my report (what findings did I make/observe?) and finally make a poster of my results! I’m also hoping to write a paper and get it published, and have my own imprint in the science literature world (there’s something cool about contributing to knowledge). I’m excited because this will be my first poster, abstract, and report and I have BIG VISIONS for all.

I actually ran into a Psychiatry resident friend at my church a few Sundays ago, and told him the type of research I’ve been working on all summer. He was interested in what I’ve seen so far and my future results. He explained that at the psych clinic where he works, the doctors have been telling their patients about the inexpensive generic medication programs but they don’t know if their patients have actually utilized them. This is where my research can help. I will have REAL DATA to show how many patients (in general) have actually utilized an inexpensive generic medication program when the physicians or pharmacists tell their patients about such a program during their clinic visit. (As I blogged earlier, the Taubman General Medicine clinic doctors have informed their patients as well.) This research study could potentially open up more research opportunities, in that if we find that monetary reasons are not the reason why patients are not compliant in taking their medicine, then there must be some other variable that we are not aware of and need to investigate further. In fact, this outcomes report, I HOPE to distribute to ALL the physicians and pharmacists at the Taubman outpatient clinics at the University of Michigan Hospitals as well as the geriatric clinics who might benefit from reading the study.

The study may affect the way physicians/pharmacists practice to help their patients become more compliant in taking their medications, with the overall goal of seeing their heaths improve. I talked to Dr. Erickson about it recently, and what we’re doing this summer could potentially be an intermediate outcome (medication compliance), with the long term outcome being the overall health improvement of patients utilizing a generic inexpensive program. To monitor improvements in the patient's health we can obtain information from their charts and monitor their numbers (cholesterol, hA1c levels, blood pressure, etc). I would then try to get it published and possibly show how a physician/pharmacists intervention actually led to better health outcomes and that it can be implemented at hospital nationwide. Not bad from an idea that came from a summer research project.

Last thoughts on my time at the Taubman General Medicine Clinic: I’m grateful for the experience. It’s been a while since I’ve talked to real patients, and heard their burdens with their diseases, medications, and the U. S. health care system. Too often during the school year I’m just trying to survive my classes that I forget the reason why I went into health care – and that is to improve the lives of patients in a definite way. I’m also grateful for this summer experience because I got a chance to learn more about the state of Michigan (I’m from California). I constantly met retirees from the auto industry at the clinic and saw how important the auto industry is for Michigan residents and this made the recent downhill in the car industry more impactful to my life.

Finally, I ran into a Michigan Senator at clinic! Unbeknownst to me at the time, I asked Michigan Senator Robert Patterson to participate in my research. And after I found out he was a Senator, we got to talk about an assortment of topics before he was called in. We talked about the recent Michigan election, his thoughts on the recent (and future) health care reform, living a public life, and how hostile politics have become recently. Unfortunately he was called in before I could talk about ways that Pharmacists can be used to improve the health care delivery and system. But I did get a chance to take a photo with him and got his business card. This is one bridge I certainly want to continue building!

Deadlines Looming

Things are stressful at the moment. In 2 days, my group (composed of Pharmacy, Dentistry, and Social Work students) are responsible to submit a grant proposal and give a presentation about Alzheimer’s Disease. This is the final objective of the MCRiT summer practicum: participation in a “virtual group research project” . To guide us, we’ve been paired with Charles Burant MD, Ph.D, a professor in the School of Medicine who has been OUTSTANDING as a mentor. Unfortunately, we’ve only been given 2 weeks to make this project happen, and unfortunately, life doesn’t just stop when you have deadlines looming.

My observation is that research can start off incredibly slow and dry - when you’re being trained, trying to put a project together, or coming up with a hypothesis- , but can become quite stressful whenever deadlines approach ( ie annual reports, renewal of grants, presentation of work thus far). I’ve also discovered research doesn’t always end when the clock strikes 5 pm. These past few days, my day started with clinic but then afterwards have been filled with meetings and reading up on Alzheimer’s Disease in my free time. Some days there have been meetings that extended late into the evening to ensure we get our work done.

And your personal life doesn’t stop too. I went to a wedding on Saturday and I’m attending another in 2 weeks.

Though I’m super busy working on my portion of the Virtual Group project – I’m in charge of the data analysis ( statistics again!) and figuring out which statistical test is appropriate, patient safety ( to pass IRB) and the estimated budget (to hypothetically hire a Primary Investigator, study coordinator, purchase supplies, etc) – I really wanted to write this post and share what I think happens annually in research, and that is reporting and presenting what you’ve done all year. We’ve had seminars for each step of the research process – now it’s time to incorporate everything and demonstrate what we’ve learned in the past 9 weeks!

This is a picture of our whiteboard from a late evening brainstorming session to develop a testable hypothesis about Alzheimer’s Disease.

IPSF-SEP at Portugal, part 1

Bon Dia!

I was warmly welcomed to the University of Coimbra in Portugal with a kiss on each cheek by Miss Francisca, the local exchange officer for IPSF-SEP program. My first day, Francisca showed me around campus, including the Old University area which is one of the oldest Universities in Europe, dating back 500 years! This University used to be the home and school for the Kings of Portugal. It remains as one of the major academic institutes in Portugal and has become a major site for culturally-inspired tourists. In fact, I have never been at a university where tour buses and groups are here everyday snapping photos of the campus and its gorgeous views as it sits on top of the hill, surrounded by a river. Just in the one week I have been here, I saw tour groups from Italy, Portugal, England, and even Japan and China.

In addition to the strong culture and history that is embedded in this "Land of Love" (Coimbra), the best part about my time here, so far, is the research project I am working on. The pharmacy faculty I have been paired with is Dr. Gabriela Jorge da Silva. She is extremely cute and hip... and very knowledgeable about her area of expertise: microbiology, bacteriology, antibiotics, and antibiotic resistance.

Because of my previous laboratory research experience at UCLA and interest to continue translational research, I chose and was placed at this University. As a P1 I have not yet learned about antibiotics and Abx resistance.. so in order to do the lab research, I started desperately reading for a basic understanding of different antibiotics, criteria for resistance and mechianisms, Class 1 Integrons, and pathogenicity groups.

More about the Portuguese. They love their cafes (espressos). Actually, espressos are enjoyed all over Europe! And I can say that because I have been to 5 European countries in the past month and sipped on aromatic espressos with the French, Germans, Italians, Spanish, and the Portuguese... and the coffees get better and better (and cheaper and cheaper!).

Francisca told me immediately that the Portuguese always have coffee after a meal, and usually at a different location for a change of scenery. So I had lunch with several research professors followed by a helping from their Pharmacy faculty Coffee Heaven cabinet. The top shelf has chocolates; the next shelf holds each person's own espresso cup; the third shelf the red NEspresso machine ( famous for the series of commercials featuring the suave George Clooney); and, on the bottom shelf, as you might be able to spot, several bottles of port wine. Maybe we will have some one day if I am able to characterize some virulence factors and pathogenecicity island groups to the Portuguese E.coli I am studying!