Patient Zero

Great news this week! We finally test-ran our study in the Retro Clinic by recruiting Patient #1! We screened her for eligibility, collected informed consent, recorded her baseline information, tagged her chart for the future, and even escorted her to the laboratory to ensure that the phlebotomist knew exactly which labs we needed drawn, and how much blood we would require.

While I'm very excited to actually have the project off the ground, recruiting the first patient obviously showed us all the logistical hiccups we'll have to iron out over the initial weeks. Since Wednesday's clinic, I've already revised our data collection worksheet, poured over different database designs we could use for data storage and analysis, and put in the request for the money that I (just maybe) forgot to pre-approve to pay each participant.

Thankfully, these issues are all very easy to rectify, and hopefully in the next 1 or 2 weeks we'll be recruiting patients full force!