To be completely honest, nothing new really happened this week. Dr. Sproat went to a bone marrow transplant conference thing and so I just continued collecting data for basically the entire week. Turns out extracting data for six hundred patients takes a lot more time than I thought it would. I expected to finish collecting data by Tuesday, input the data on Wednesday, and analyze the data yesterday and today. Turns out I just finished collecting data today. Which means next week I will have to organize that data, which actually constitutes multiple steps. First, I have to calculate the BMI's and body weight percent losses since all I have right now are heights and weights. Then, I need to find a reliable BMI classification (e.g. < X BMI is underweight, >X BMI is obese, etc.) and a body weight classification (e.g. >0%, 0%<X<5%, 5% <x<10%, etc.). Then I have to sort the data into that. But that's for next week. So since there is nothing new I just have pictures of the clinic for this week. Sorry but that's all I could think of.
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| The one door I get to use my badge on! |
So there is a short story behind this picture. In the area where I work collecting data, I get to here doctors dictate their patient meetings. And I kid you not I can barely understand what they are saying. They talk extremely fast and since I am still unfamiliar with a lot of the drugs/ terminology it sounds like a foreign language. At best, I get 50%. Because I felt like I needed to learn a lot more, I asked Dr.Sproat if there was a single source that encompassed all the knowledge I needed to know. And I got this massive book. Almost 2000 pages. Literally, just the list of abbreviations used in this book is eight pages long. Anyways, I guess I'll be reading this for a while. See you guys next week!
Hi Justin! Haha that's funny to hear about that huge book. Also, I hope that you've been enjoying doing the grunt work! I know how it feels like to not do anything new that much. However, I see that your project is progressing quite well!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Collecting data is essential to the project but sadly it isn't the most interesting thing to talk about. Hopefully, I can bring something new next week!
DeleteHi Justin. Sorry to hear that nothing interesting really happened. Hope it gets more interesting for you next week. I was just curious as to what you do besides just taking data or is that all you are doing for now. If you are going to do more can you explain.
ReplyDeleteWell, part of collecting data requires me to calculate some stuff. So basically what I collect from the database are heights and weights. I then have to change that data into BMI's and % BMI change.
DeleteHey Justin. Have fun with all the data, but all your hard effort now will pay off later. Also, nice story about the book, have fun going through it
ReplyDeleteI will!
DeleteHey Justin!
ReplyDeleteWow! Collecting 600 patients data and analyzing all of seems so much... that's a lot of numbers. Good Luck putting that together... so are you going to calculate the BMI for each and every individual person separately for 600 of them? or do you put in the data and the computer does the work? Can't wait for what you present :)
Hi Sruthi. Thankfully Excel is really good with calculating something if there is a lot of data and the same formula. I might post the specific formulas next week to stay tuned!
DeleteHi Justin! I'm sorry to hear that nothing very interesting happened this week, but let us hope that something twice as exciting happens next week! Are you doing anything else besides taking data right now? I'm looking forward to watching your project progress through the next couple of weeks.
ReplyDeleteNope. Pretty much just collecting data. Although I might see a few patients in the next few weeks.
DeleteHi Justin. Sorry to hear that you did not learn anything. While you were gathering data, did you already start seeing some patterns?
ReplyDeleteHi Aditya, it's kind of hard to "see trends" when I just have heights and weights. Because I don't have data about all the other factors I'm looking at (overall survival, graft versus host disease, etc.) I can't really make any hypotheses as of right now. Next week, once I get the data analyzed I'll make sure to mention any trends I see.
DeleteHi Justin,
ReplyDeleteSorry this was not an exciting week, but it's great that you finished collecting data! I thought it was really interesting how medical jargon can sound like a foreign language. I hope next week will be more exciting and I look forward to seeing your upcoming posts!
Thanks
DeleteHey Justin. Its sucks you couldn't do anything this week. I know how exciting it is to be able to use a card and how it makes you feel like you have status. I hope you can study up and learn to interpret and understand at least 75% of what they are saying by the next several weeks.
ReplyDeleteHopefully 100% but we'll have to see.
DeleteWow thanks for the pictures Justin! You have a ton to do it sounds like! I'm doing a bunch of research at my company too, do you have a way to keep fresh while you're going? Maybe music? And congrats on seeking out that book!
ReplyDeleteSince collecting data is a bit slow and tedious and staring at a computer screen for a long time gets tiring, sometimes I switch between reading the book and collecting data. And sometimes I even get to take breaks to see patients. But for the most part, I like to work for long periods of time to just get the data collection done.
DeleteHey Justin! I love the pictures. They are really helpful. I am excited to hear about what you learn from reading that massive book and how it will relate to your research. I hope next week will be more exciting for you!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteHi Justin! I'm sorry to hear you had an uneventful week but I'm sure you had fun and learned lots all the same. Thanks for putting so many pictures up on this week's post and I hope your next week is more fun!
ReplyDelete