Low points

Grant proposal #1 was rejected.

My mentor’s response: “That’s ok! Please get rejected!” Because rejection is part of the process… because to be successful you have to risk failure… because you have to learn to persevere. It will make you better. And as he walked away, “HAVE FUN! This should be fun!”

This rejection may be coloring my attitude towards research today, but I was frustrated and disappointed with a lunchtime lecture on obesity. The presenter’s research revolves around how to change our environment/communities to help solve the obesity epidemic. This is a very important topic and one I think we need to take more seriously. My reactions from the talk:

1) One of the major research accomplishments discussed was a finding that high-income communities have more fruits and vegetables available compared with low-income communities. Did we really need an NIH-funded study to prove that?!

2) A second major research accomplishment discussed was the development of methods to measure “healthful food," but this study included potato chips as a “healthful choice.” I think we first need to figure out how to correctly define this!

3) The issue of fructose was not discussed (though calories, fat, and portion size were).

4) If we’re talking about making change in communities, we should look at what we're doing here at this hospital to change our environment. What are our patients eating in this hospital? Why is there a McDonalds at the children’s hospital? How come there is not a gym at the medical center for patients, family members, and medical staff? And why did they serve greasy potato chips and sodas for this lunchtime lecture? 

If I am going to do research for my career, here are some questions I want to make sure I remember to think about:

• What does this research contribute to society?
• Is it worth everybody’s time (not only your time, but that of your patients and your collaborators)? 
• What new interventions or clinical practices will come out of this? 
• Is the study worth all the money going into it (or could that money be better spent on something else to benefit society?) 

Running underneath all of this, my mind kept going back to a patient I met this morning in clinic. 31 years old and she has metastatic breast cancer (currently getting chemo and radiation). She came in today because of bad headaches that have been keeping her up at night for the past week.

This may be metastatic cancer to her brain. I watched as the oncologist talked with her about what this would mean. She was calm, quiet, rational. She was beautiful. I wanted to know everything about her.

She's 31. How does this happen???