Saturday, December 19, 2009

Research update: Month 2

A quick update:
  • My telomere study is evolving to be much than I ever initially envisioned. Writing a grant to do real-time PCR analysis on DNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells? I honestly never thought I would say that. I love thinking about these questions and realizing that I can actually do it. We have two grant proposals due Jan/Feb. 
  • I feel distracted from my initial goal of running a yoga clinical trial. The plan is to submit the yoga study protocol for IRB approval at the end of January. My priority right now is this telomere grant but once I finish that I’ll focus my energies on the protocol. 
  • Instead of recruiting on Fridays (meaning I “cold call” patients in the waiting room trying to persuade them to enroll in a research study – an inefficient and poor use of time), I will now be spending my Fridays seeing patients with an oncologist (and enrolling patients within the trust of the patient-doctor relationship – much more effective). I can now build a relationship with this oncologist and learn about breast cancer management, while also talking with patients about the yoga study and finding future participants. I couldn’t be happier about this. I *almost* liked wearing my short white coat again. 
  • I’ve been neglecting my interest in HIV and infectious disease and I miss it. I’ve been in touch with some HIV physicians I admire and hope to work with them on some small projects.

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