Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! Despite my on-site mentor going on her daughter's Spring Break this week, Dr. Chong still found some fun things for me to do this week. She asked one of her other interns, Ph.D. student Gina Dumkrieger, to have me help out in the making of a program to score the COMPASS 31, a new and improved version of the ASP (Autonomic Symptom Profile) and the COMPASS (Composite Autonomic Symptom Score). Because I only worked on the program this week, I'll try my best to describe what I was doing.
Originally, the ASP was a 169-item instrument for measuring autonomic symptoms. From it, they generated the COMPASS, an 84-item questionnaire. Sadly not everyone has the time to answer 253 questions. Plus, problems such as an overcomplicated computer analysis process and redundant questions had arisen. Enter the COMPASS 31, a 31-item questionnaire that applies a much simpler scoring algorithm, thereby suitable for widespread use in autonomic research and practice. The questions were split into 7 different domains: Orthostatic Intolerance (questions 1-4), Vasomotor (5-7), Secretomotor (8-11), Gastrointestinal (12-23), Bladder (24-26), and Pupillomotor (27-31). I'm not sure if I explained that well, but check out this article, COMPASS 31: A Refined and Abbreviated Composite Autonomic Symptom Score, for more information.
Since the days Gina and I come into Mayo don't overlap, we have mainly been communicating via email. My job was to type the questions from the questionnaire into the program in addition to finishing the coding for the questionnaire. Below are the first eight questions from the COMPASS 31 input into a program called Macros. I don't know the details about this program, but it's something in Excel. Then the second picture is the code behind the questionnaire.
I've never really coded anything except for a little in Linear Algebra, though I didn't really know what was going on there either. I'll try to explain this to the best of my amateur coding abilities. For each question, each answer has a different value. So depending on the answer a subject chooses makes up the score of the questionnaire. Someone else came up with the equation as well as the value that each answer has, so I only had to copy and paste the equation for each question then put the value of each answer. And here's the final result! The table underneath it is a spreadsheet where all the data will go once patients complete the questionnaire.
That's all for this week! I appreciate your support and all your lovely comments. I'm hoping in the next few weeks that we'll begin data analysis so that I can continue making progress with my project. I'm also still in need of a final product, so any ideas are welcomed. ;D I'll see you next time for Week 7!! :)
Hi Kiri! I'm glad you are enjoying doing different tasks throughout your project! What has your favorite experience been so far?
ReplyDeleteI'm grateful that I've had the opportunity to try a variety of things throughout my internship so far. My favorite experience has been having Dr. Chong (the radiologist) explain the process of analyzing a patient's brain scans. Their thorough analysis for each patient is very impressive, and it just makes me appreciate how far we've come in the medical field. Thanks for continuing to follow along!
DeleteHello Kiri! It's really cool that you are able to do some coding despite having little experience with it. Do you think you will try to learn more about coding after this?
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm glad that I've gotten a slightly better understanding about the way coding works. I may consider taking a class in college, but we'll see. I've still got time to decide, right? Happy Monday! ;D
DeleteHi Kiri! Fascinating post! How often are patients expected to complete the COMPASS 31? Is it at every visit, at time intervals, or only at one point during treatment?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ms. Conner! In the studies Dr. Chong is conducting, patients have to complete this questionnaire during their first visit so as to assess autonomic symptoms they may be experiencing(ex. dizziness, light sensitivity, etc.). They use this to look for a correlation between these symptoms and a headache/traumatic brain injury to be able to better predict the types of headache (migraines, cluster, etc.). Have a great day! :)
DeleteHi Kiri! How was the coding experience at your site? Did you use some of the things e learned in Liner Algebra? Did you do this the whole day? If so, I'm very sorry (unless you enjoyed it of course).
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, my coding "expertise" from Linear Algebra didn't carry over for this coding experience. Though that makes sense since matrices don't really have anything to do with a questionnaire about autonomic symptoms. Coding wasn't too bad overall though. It was mainly repetition, so that made everything easier. I did it the whole day, but it was all good. I was able to listen to music rather than have to work in silence. Hope you're having an enjoyable Week 7!
DeleteHi Kiri! How was coding? Was it difficult, or did some subjects from Linear Algebra help?
ReplyDeleteSadly, the coding I was taught in Linear Algebra was a bit too math-y to be applicable for this occasion of questions from the COMPASS 31. Fortunately, the lines of code I had to write were kind of similar to each other. It was a great experience, and maybe I'll continue coding in college...I hear college is the opportune time for experimentation! ;D
DeleteCoding sounds super cool! How did you first learn to code?! This summer, I am hopefully joining a coding class and I am happy to see that have had some experience with it! Any tips? I am just curious about it! :) Looking forward to your upcoming blog post!
ReplyDelete(I deleted the last comment because I said "blog" instead of "blog post." :)
No problem, Lorena! I delete posts all the time. I'll post something, then I'll proofread it and notice the glaring issue (s). :P I think I first learned about coding in Linear Algebra during my senior year (so better late than never, right?). I never could quite get the hang of it, so when we got out in February, I guess I sort of forgot about it. Then Dr. Chong brought up this opportunity to learn more about the basics of coding, I just thought, "why not?" And so, last week was the continuation of my beginner's guide to code. I'm no expert with coding, so I'd prefer not to give out any advice (it would probably be wrong anyway). However, I will say that the satisfaction of getting the code to run after trying to run it multiple times (and still finding small errors) is a great feeling. I hope you have fun, and I wish you luck with your summer coding class!
DeleteWow from the little I could understand from that coding seems insanely complex. Did you come into this project expecting to code? How does Compass 31 cover all the information as in depth as the older one in fewer questions?
ReplyDeleteNo, Mary, I was definitely not expecting to see code again, but I'm glad I did. It was a great refresher since I barely understood it the first time it was taught to me. Not that I had a bad teacher, but that I had (and probably still have) a bad case of senioritis. What makes the COMPASS 31 significant is that it's a more concise version of the ASP and COMPASS combined, and it only contains the questions that will get the quickest results. This improved version of the previously lengthy questionnaires has also been created to increase generalizability for a greater amount of research. I hope this answered your questions, thank you!
DeleteWow coding sounds really difficult! Hopefully that all goes well. Were you expecting there to be any coding? How does Compass 31 cover all the same information as the older one?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I didn't explain it very well, but it wasn't as bad as you think, Grayson. I'm not saying I would want to pursue a career in coding, but it would be a topic I'd be interested in learning more about. I was not expecting to see code in this internship, but it has shown me the multiple aspects of the research field. So, you see, the problem with the ASP and the COMPASS was that separately they were too long, with redundancy and over-complex algorithms. By combining the two, removing repetitive questions and creating a simpler algorithm to go with it, they formed the COMPASS 31. It retains the important questions for the quickest results and is generalizable to various avenues of research. Thanks for commenting! :)
DeleteNice to hear that your work has expanded to something other than filing and scanning! Did you have much trouble with the coding? Have you started noticed any patterns amongst the patients once they were all on a spread sheet?
ReplyDeleteThe coding actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was mostly copying and pasting the code from the previous lines. And no, we haven't actually started scoring the COMPASS 31's yet. I only used one to test that the program actually worked. Maybe for Week 7, I'll be able to add some more scores in and answer your question. Thanks, and have a great night!
DeleteHey Kiri! This was an amazing post (as always, your posts never fail to amuse me) :D I know you mentioned a final product idea on my blog and your blog last week, and so I finally decided to sit down and really think of some ideas for your SP! Perhaps you can make a pdf or a website that outlines the gender differences in terms of the symptoms of mild head trauma? That way, people that are experiencing symptoms can get a better self-diagnosis and see a doctor (this can help spread awareness that there are differences to begin with)? Or you could create a system in a website online (using your new coding skills) that asks people questions about their symptoms and it can guess their gender? Or it can ask their symptoms and cross-check them with those for their particular gender, and provide information on whether they actually have head trauma? I don't know if those were helpful, but those were some ideas I had that I thought could be interesting. I won't mind if you tweak them or ignore the suggestion :D Anyways, I can't wait to hear more about your coding next week!!!!
ReplyDeleteHey Kiri! I was wondering if you knew what programming language or software you are using? It sounds like a cool project. Can't wait to hear more next week!
ReplyDeleteSorry, Sarah, unfortunately I don't know what program I used, which probably would've been a good question to ask. It's okay, I'll ask Gina today and get back to you on it. Thanks for asking!
DeleteHi Kiri! Wow, thats a really cool questionnaire! How was your experience with coding? Was it harder or easier than you thought?
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking, Reyna! The coding wasn't too bad, and once I got the hang of it, it was actually enjoyable. I didn't really have any thoughts about coding because I was not expecting to have to code at this internship. I sort of forgot about it once I got out of school and didn't have Linear Algebra. It was a great refresher since I barely understood it the first time it was taught to me. Have a nice day!
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