Hope my 9th and 10th-grade BASIS followers had a relaxing Spring Break! Comment anything fun you did over break so that I can enjoy it vicariously. You know what comes next…week overview time:
Move On Monday
You can sigh in relief for today is the last day I'll be scanning files. I finished the last of them, and if I see another patient file it'll be too soon...only kidding! I didn't mind the work at all, but I'm glad that I'll be moving on to something new. We also had our usual Monday meeting with the usual enrollment and status update discussions.
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| Our conference table for our Monday meetings |
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| My new desk/cubicle! |
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| The last of the files I had to scan! |
Work, Work, Work Wednesday
And for my next "trick", Dr. Chong assigned me the task of stepping into the lab coat of the radiologists and learning how to research to find a patient's diagnosis. To put my skills to the test, she gave me a practice single case study with the only details being: "The patient is a 30-year-old female who came into the ER. She presents with sudden weakness and tingling in her right arm. She also has a history of chronic high blood pressure. What do you think happened?" All I can say is thank goodness for the internet! I can't even begin to imagine all the books I would've had to look through without the existence of computers. Below is a picture of the spreadsheet I created with several diseases that I researched which could possibly match her case. Dr. Chong and I will be discussing my research tomorrow, so I'll be able to tell if any of my googling paid off.
Thursday Discussion
So, pat on the back for me! Dr. Chong was very pleased with my spreadsheet, and she complimented me on my idea of having separate characteristics to describe each disease. Plus, the great thing about this activity is that there is no wrong answer. This patient could have any disease, just as long as the symptoms match. Then after our discussion, I learned a little about how to create a program for scoring one of the questionnaires, which was very interesting. That's all for now. I hope you enjoyed this post, and I'll see you all next week! :)
Hey Kiri! Amazing post as always :D The office is coming together beautifully, and I'm glad you got through all of the files! Quick question, are these practice case studies made from really old patients Mayo has had (so you can actually find the actual diagnosis), or are they truly made up? Sorry if that was a silly question; I was just curious how they come up with them. Thank you, and can't wait to read your next post! <3
ReplyDeleteThanks, Saleena! I'm so happy that I get a cubicle to myself. Getting so much space for my one notebook and pen makes me feel very important. ;D As for the case study, I'm pretty sure Dr. Chong just thought of a couple symptoms that would get me on my way with researching. It makes it easier, I think, for there to be multiple possibilities for diagnosis rather than looking for just one. Can't believe we're already into Week 6!
DeleteHi Kiri! That's so cool that you got try to diagnose someone (even if it was just a case study). What is the next step for you in helping out with the study now that you have scanned all the patient files?
ReplyDeleteHave fun!
Yes, I now appreciate the importance of these clinicians. They're the ones responsible for diagnosing each patient correctly. They have to be able to take a couple a general symptoms, find all possible diseases it could be, then narrow the choices down to one. I applaud all those in that profession. Now that I've finished scanning patient files, I think I'll have to wait until we enroll enough subjects before we start the data analysis. I'll be sure to let you know when that begins!
DeleteHi Kiri! Your spreadsheet looks very detailed and organized, I'm glad Dr. Chong was impressed :) How did you organize the diseases you put on it, and what type of program did you help make you score the questionnaires??
ReplyDeleteI too was glad that Dr. Chong was impressed. The way organized them was by ranking them from most likely to least likely. I gathered all the information I could about each disease and then numbered them from 1 to 6 as a disease that the patient she could most likely have to one he/she could least likely have. I don't know much about the program they used to score the questionnaire since all I was responsible for was typing in the questions, but it was something in excel. I'll be working more on the program in Week 6, so I'll tell you what I learn in my next post. Have a nice week back!
DeleteKiri! :) Over break, I finally met up with old friends! It was a lot of fun, but nothing like diagnosing someone or being complimented by a professional! I am just curious, what possible diseases could the 30-year-old female have? Awesome writing (as always)!
ReplyDeleteDiagnosing patients is fun, but I'm glad you got time to hang out with your friends. Happy to hear you had an enjoyable break! What I found that she could possibly have was (ranked from most likely to least likely): Peripheral Neuropathy, a Pinched Nerve, Atherosclerosis-Related Diseases (i.e. Carotid Artery Disease or Peripheral Artery Disease)/Multiple Sclerosis, ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), Cervical Spondylosis, or a Brain Tumor. With such general symptoms, it made it slightly to difficult to pinpoint just one possible diagnosis, which is why I ended up with sort of a mixed bag of possibilities. Thanks again for reading and commenting! :)
DeleteHi Kiri! Over break, I was able to sleep a lot so I think it was amazing? Was it easy to find the symptoms of each disease on google, or did it take some extra digging?
ReplyDeleteYes! I find breaks to be the best time to catch up on sleep, though I'm always torn between getting enough sleep and watching Netflix for hours on end. Just recently my sister made me start watching Parks and Rec (because she had just started it), and now we're already on Season 4. Where all the time goes I do not know. ;D Having Google exist makes it a thousand times easier to find things, or at least, many different things. Because of the many (sometimes unreliable) medical sites out there, it made it a bit harder to figure out which websites were telling the truth. Fortunately I found most of my answers from the Mayo Clinic website, which is both helpful as well as easily accessible. In the long run, it was very interesting to read up about all the different types of diseases that are out there. Enjoy your week, and I'll see you on my next post!
DeleteHey Kiri! It's cool to hear that you got your own cubicle. I hope you slept as much as I did during your spring break. I'm also really excited that you got complimented by a professional doctor. Congrats and keep up the great work.
ReplyDeleteIt's a relief to hear I'm not the only one who uses breaks to compensate for the lack of sleep I got when I was in school. Unfortunately, my Spring Break isn't until the second week of April, but I'm already counting down the days! I also am very pleased with my cubicle and the two computers, comfy chair, and TWO computer screens that come with it. Thanks again for following along with me! :D
DeleteWow! Your spreadsheet looks very specific. That probably will come in handy in the future. Are the patient files current cases or already closed?
ReplyDeleteThanks, I was pretty proud of my spreadsheet as well. The patient files that I scanned are from current cases. They're from all the studies that I discussed in my Week 2 post. I'm hoping that they'll soon have enrolled enough patients to begin data analysis for some of the studies. Have a great day!
DeleteHi Kiri! That'a a beautiful spreadsheet I want to be that spreadsheet it is my idol. Anyway, I was wondering if there are any resources that are available for you to use for researching at your internship or if you are mostly relying on internet resources. Looking forrward to next week!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I appreciate your love for my spreadsheet or should question your criteria to become your idol, Sarah. ;D I didn't use any specific resources for my research, but I did find the Mayo Clinic website to be quite useful. Their descriptions of the diseases I found gave me the idea of separating the characteristics of each disease into different categories (definition, symptoms, etc.). Though, on another occasion when I was looking for articles on previous concussion-related studies that have been conducted, PubMed was a very helpful tool (similar to JSTOR). Hope your Week 6 is going well!
DeleteHey Kiri! Your spreadsheet is really cool. Over break I did a lot of catching up on sleep and my favorite shows:) It's really great that you have your own cubicle. What topics do you discuss during your Monday meetings? Can't wait for next week's post!
ReplyDeleteYour break sounds exactly like what I do on my breaks, so I'm glad it was relaxing one. I'm very happy with my own cubicle, too! In the Monday meetings, the department mainly talks about how many subjects they've recently enrolled for their studies or any questions they might have. The purpose of these meetings is to promote communication within the department and ensure that each person knows what's going on in the all studies. I think they introduced these meetings fairly recently, and I'm glad they did for it's very interesting to hear about a variety of studies, each focused on different aspects of the brain. Enjoy your week! :D
DeleteHello Kiri! Your spreadsheet is quite genius and I am totally going to steal that method when I do my internship at Mayo (credits to you of course). My break was so boring that I don't remember what I did unless it included leaving the house for extended periods of times such as the rodeo. I don't think I asked this question before, but are you interested in going into the neurology field and be a researcher or would you like to work in clinic with the patients?
ReplyDeleteWow, Isabella, you'll be interning at Mayo, that's fantastic! We can compare with each other our experiences at Mayo!! It's also good to hear that I can have some good ideas on occasion. And, a rodeo? That sounds awesome!! That's a place where the chances of receiving a concussion are pretty high, I'm guessing, what with being thrown off a bucking bronco or some other rodeo-related event. :P Now, if I can improve my talking-to-people skills, I think I would prefer to be interacting with patients. Reading about different studies is fascinating, but I don't think I could be the people that writes one. I'll leave that to the people who can correctly use you're and your. Have a nice day!
DeleteHi Kiri! Let's all clap for such an accomplished organizer! I also finished going through mine this week, so I am glad that we both succeeded. Now time for my infamous questions.
ReplyDeleteWhat are some of the diseases that came up when you did your research on the sample patent? I want to know for educational purposes. And do you think you learned anything new from this experience? (other than it was hard of course)
That is all for now, but I'm glad you posted this week.
Congratz, Robert! We are now both professional organizers! Who needs a BASIS education when you can organize things, am I right? ;D What I found that she could possibly have was (ranked from most likely to least likely): Peripheral Neuropathy, a Pinched Nerve, Atherosclerosis-Related Diseases (i.e. Carotid Artery Disease or Peripheral Artery Disease)/Multiple Sclerosis, ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), Cervical Spondylosis, or a Brain Tumor. For more details of each disease, just click on the spreadsheet from my post. I learned a lot from this experience and about the the extensive research needed to diagnose a patient. Dr. Chong told me that many colleges used to teach medical classes using this technique. It gives an opportunity for students to step into the shoes of a clinician and their process of diagnosis, from assessing symptoms all the way to possible treatments. Thanks for commenting!
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