Weeks 9 and Ten

Hello everyone! First off, let me apologize for not posting anything at all last week. I know I'm supposed to post material on what's been happening with my project, but sadly I have to report that for past couple of weeks I've been doing the same thing. Recently, Dr. Steidley had to attend several conferences out-of-state and so I've just been working on the presentation that I will have to give at the Mustang Library in May and at the American Heart Association (AHA) later on in the year. That's it. That is literally what I've been doing, as it's really the only thing I can do. It's been slightly frustrating to do this with my hectic and unpredictable work schedule and with the fact that I still haven't been able to collect any data for the "Results" and "Analysis" portions since Dr. Steidley and I are still working with the people at Pfizer as our manuscript was only recently approved. I'm slightly worried that my final presentation may not be what I originally envisioned since I might still be in the process of determining which MCF value correlates with an increased probability of death from cardiac transthyretin amyloidosis.

Even though, the SRP is technically over. I still have much to do with this project and I know that I'll be working on this project over the summer. As of now, Dr. Steidley is trying to arrange another teleconference with Pfizer since I sent him our Table 1 for the abstract we're trying to form for the AHA conference.

For those who have followed my project so far, I thank you just for the fact that you decided to use your personal time just to hear about my experiences. While I know where my project should be talking me, I'm not sure which road I will be embarking on (or am on now) so to speak. Also, I want to thank those who have followed despite my weird formatting with each week's title (I don't know why I changed the numbers each week, I guess I'm just random). Although, my project has taken unexpected turns and I haven't been able to spend as much time with Dr. Steidley as I would have liked, I am ultimately grateful for what this project has done for me. It has allowed me to grow into a more mature and empathetic person while giving me a glimpse into what life is like for those who commit their lives to serving others.

I'll still be posting on my blog since technically my project isn't over; however, I won't be able to post as frequently (or infrequently) due to work. So for those who want to stop now with where my project has been, again I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support and encouragement. For those who decide to keep reading my blog, I'll continue to put forth my best effort into creating something that's interesting.

Regardless of which camp you fall into, I hope you have a wonderful day!

Week Eight

Hello everyone! Sorry for the slightly late post. Between family responsibilities and my job, I've had very little time to blog. However, I'm glad that I've been busy since its actually given me a direction to go forward in. Lately, I've been thinking about where I should go to college and why, in addition to considering other aspects like research opportunities, academic rigor, diversity, etc. Most people would be terrified to think about where they want to spend the next four years of their lives, but I find it to be exciting for I feel this is the bridge that actually leads you to adulthood (or at least young adulthood).

Anyway, the previous week has been the most fruitful for my SRP. Dr. Steidley and I talked to Dr. Maurer and Dr. Moh-Lim Ong, Sr. Director of Global Medical Affairs, Rare Disease, and Global Innovative Products for Pfizer, Inc. about the next steps for our manuscript. Specifically, we talked about how we would all do the logistics of an analysis for our study and I feel that we have the potential to do something that's promising. In the THAOS registry there are about 600-700 patients whose MCFs can be calculated to find the probability of mortality from cardiac transthyretin amyloidosis. So we have a good sample size to determine if MCF is better than ejection fraction (EF) in predicting this disease. What Dr. Steidley and I have to do now is that we just need to create a Table 1 (a visual representation that includes the common observed characteristics in a particular study) while Dr. Ong and Dr. Maurer send us the data from the THAOS registry. They said that they would compile everything that we need in a week's time, and we would just send them the table whenever we're ready. Our goal is to get our side of the project done within the week they send the data to us, so that we can create an abstract that we could send for review to the American Heart Association (AHA). We're trying to get another paper published within the THAOS registry, since the last one was published a few years ago. If all goes well, then I believe that Dr. Steidley and I will actually be able to present our research findings at the next American Heart Association meeting later this year in November.

That's what is happening as of now with my project. In other news, I went to a lecture called "A Talk on a Talk" in order to learn how to give a great oral presentation for when I have to present my findings at the Mustang Library and hopefully at the AHA later this year. The biggest takeaway I got from the lecture, was that for any speech you give you should speak as if you're telling a story and that people naturally want to be moved by what you're saying. I'm write this to encourage myself to give my best effort for when I do present as well to remind myself to always go out of way to connect with whomever I'm speaking to; for I feel that no matter how technical or unknown the disease is if I can make someone empathize for the people that do live with the disease while raising awareness for it, then I feel that I would have truly done something beneficial with the wonderful resources and extraordinary people I've been blessed with.

Also, I'm not sure how I'm going to do this project for this week since Dr. Steidley will be out of town all week for several conferences. The best I can do is to continue to work on the presentation and finish creating our Table 1 early, for further revisions if necessary. I'll continue to let you all about my progress, so until I hope everyone has a great week!

Week 7

So within the past few days, I've had the biggest stroke of luck. My project was halted when I was told that our manuscript most likely would not be approved until after the end of our SRP. I can officially say that is no longer the case, as I learned quite recently that our manuscript made it in time for the monthly review and the review committee endorsed us!
The next step that Dr. Steidley and I have to take is to have a teleconference with the Senior Director of Global Medical Affairs, Rare Disease, and Global Innovative Products for Pfizer, Inc. We'll be talking to him next Friday to discuss how we can get the information and analysis for our study. It's such a relief to know that all the work you've put in for a project like this is finally paying off.

I didn't do much this week due to unforeseen issues that we're out of our control. All I did this week was spending six hours preparing on the presentation that I will give at the Mustang Library at the end of my project and preparing for the national meeting that Dr. Steidley and I will go to later in the year.

I apologize for this week's blog post for being so short. I know that next week I'm going to transition into a more research-oriented role at the Mayo Clinic, besides observing the ICU and in-clinic patients. I feel that next week will be even more satisfying in terms of my personal growth and my project's development. So until then, have a great week!