Research Protocol and Funding

This was my last week on research. I'm still not done writing my protocol, but at least I have a project more or less planned out. It's definitely going to be on trying to predict delirium in geriatric patients. I'm also working on my application for the medical student geriatrics research fellowship.

Yesterday, I met with one of the fellows about writing a protocol for a second project that sounds pretty cool. That would be a retrospective project, meaning that we'd be looking at data that have already been collected. He would use the results to support his application for funding to do a prospective trial, where new data would be collected. So it looks like I'm probably going to have two projects for my research year, which could be a good thing if I get two publications out of it. I don't know when I'm going to get around to writing that proposal though, because now I'll have to start doing work for my next rotation.

Other than that, it hasn't been a terribly exciting week. We've been trying to figure out where people are smoking that makes the cigarette smell drift into the med student office, but we haven't been able to find them so far. The funny thing is that apparently the people on the floor above us can smell it too, because someone who works up there came down to our floor to find out if it was one of us! I think whoever it is must be smoking outside next to a vent. There's no way anyone could smoke inside any of the CCF buildings without setting off the fire alarm. Believe me, people have tried!