Welcome to My Blog

I’ve decided to make a blog! As an easy way to open it, thought I’d answer some of the most common questions I’ve gotten over the past few months:

Are you taking a year off from medical school?

Yes! I was awarded a Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship from Yale Medical School to research pediatric HIV in Ghana. This means that I’ll be living and working in Accra, the capital of Ghana, from September 2009 through May 2010. I’ll return to school for my fourth year next fall.

Wait, I thought you were in New Haven?

As part of the Doris Duke fellowship, students spend one month at their “host” institution learning the basics of statistics, clinical research methods, and getting to know their mentor. While I was in New Haven I got to know Dr. Elijah Paintsil, a native Ghanaian pediatrician who now works at Yale and is overseeing my project. We developed a research protocol, and he gave me hints on life in Ghana.

I also got to meet the other Yale Doris Duke Fellows. There are 12 of us total. 9 will be staying in New Haven all year, and three of us are here in Africa. You can check out the other two (awesome) girls at:

melissaintugelaferry.blogspot.com/

alachdean.blogspot.com/

How did you pick Ghana? (I get this a lot from people here in Ghana.)

The short answer is, “Ghana picked me.” (People here like this. Sweeet & simple.)

The slightly longer one is that I applied to the Doris Duke foundation with the general goal of doing research abroad in a developing country, and I was selected to work with Dr. Paintsil in Ghana. I also have a mentor in Accra, Dr. Lorna Renner, who I work with on a daily basis.

For those who haven’t studied a map recently: Ghana is a small country about the size of Pennsylvania on the coast of west Africa. It overlooks the Atlantic to the south, and has a tropical climate. Accra is the capital, and is located right on the ocean.

What is your research about?

I’m going to be evaluating different biomarkers for monitoring HIV progression in children. Right now the standard of care in the US is to use percentage CD4 count (because the absolute count varies with age in children), viral load, and clinical symptoms. However, the lab costs associated with measuring percentage CD4 count and viral load are prohibitive in resource-limited settings. Absolute CD4 count is a moderately cheaper option. The question is: Can absolute CD4 counts be used in children to reliably monitor HIV progression?

This is an important question because in places where every IV line is counted and patients frequently discontinue treatment because of cost, every lab test must be considered carefully. A preliminary trial of this study in New Haven showed that absolute CD4 count was adequate, and we hope to strengthen these results by a similar trial in Ghana.

Where are you living?

I’m living in the “International Medical Students’ Hostel” on the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital campus. International means mostly Nigerian students, although a few Americans come each month for electives (read: You should come visit me! Get credit, have fun!). I have a roommate named Amma, a first year medical student, from Ghana who has been indispensable in helping me settle in.

The Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital campus is huge, including the hospitals, nursing/public health/midwifery/every other health profession schools. It’s also surrounded by a huge wall. This means that in a crowded city, I live in a relatively safe haven with little to no traffic and extra green life. It’s pretty nice! Great jogging grounds!

Not everything has been an easy adjustment, however. The running water went out today (this apparently happens a few times a week), and I haven’t yet bought a bucket to shower with. So after returning from a long sweaty run this morning, I was greeted with the lovely option of not showering or not showering. Oof. Have to buy that bucket!

Can I get in contact to send you hilarious emails and leave ridiculous voicemails?

Yes! I have what I like to call an angel of a roommate, who not only set me up with a cell phone, but also hooked up our room with wireless internet. No running water, but wireless! A tradeoff I’ll gladly take. So go ahead and email me. Webcam with me. Whatever you like. I’ll work on getting my Skype set up so you can leave those ridiculous voicemails too.

Are you going to update this blog regularly?

As long as the internet access holds up, and you keep reading, yes.