Biostatistics and Basements

I started my day out with a desperate attempt to find the uniform office so that I could pick up my second white coat. It's in the basement of Building H, which is the main hospital. That sounds easy to find, right? But it isn't. The Cleveland Clinic, like many large, old hospitals, has had various random sections added on it since it was first built, and there are all kinds of tricks that you need to know to successfully get from one area to another. Needless to say, I do not know these tricks. When I first got down to the basement, I was somehow wandering around in what looked like a janitorial storage area. I asked a man where I needed to go, and he told me I was in Building M, and pointed me toward Building H. I wandered around through the Radiology Department in the basement of Building H for a while before a resident down there finally showed me the right place to go. It wasn't that the people I had asked for help earlier didn't want to help me, but they didn't know where to go any better than I did. I took the skyway back to the Lerner Institute, and that was much easier. If you're ever wandering around the Cleveland Clinic, I advise you to take the skyway. There are signs posted up there telling you where to go.

Our seminar today was biostatistics, and I have to tell you that today's seminar leader, Dr. O'Brien, was fantastic. He's just really funny and kind of crazy, which actually makes what would otherwise be a relatively dry subject somewhat interesting. He said that he'd be teaching portions of our biostatistics/epidemiology course next summer, so we'll be seeing more of him. A few people in my class are considering getting MS degrees in either biostats/epi or clinical trials. I think if I did a MS, I'd do the clinical trials one. It overlaps with biostats/epi quite a bit, but there are a few less courses. I am not planning to do a MS though.

In the afternoon, I was in the lab, but I mostly was trying to get caught up with my studying. I'm still behind, unfortunately, but hopefully I'll be caught up after this week. Tomorrow is another PSS day. We're going to be going over the cell cycle, which thankfully is something that is not totally new to me.