Week 12:
Mayo Clinic

August 13, 2013

This week we finished sending out our surveys and even received some back in the mail. I was very excited when I found out the first Epilepsy survey was returned! So far, we have received about 10 Epilepsy surveys and 30 Parkinson’s Disease surveys back. We are currently working on setting up a database so we can begin the data entry process for the Epilepsy survey. Since the Parkinson’s Disease survey is part of a multi-center study, we will not do anything further with them. We will be sending them to Montreal, where they will be analyzed.

Throughout this whole process we have gotten a lot of phone calls, so I’ve had the opportunity to interact with some of the patients. There were a couple mistakes found in the surveys,  which is disappointing because I proofread them multiple times. This was bound to happen, however, in a 40-page document. In addition, some of the patients called inquiring why they received a survey because they have never been diagnosed with Epilepsy or Parkinson’s Disease. In some cases, the patients were in denial that they had this diagnosis, which made the situation very delicate. In other cases, some of the patients had a diagnostic code in their record by accident. Either way, talking to these patients was a great learning experience. One particular phone call that I really enjoyed was a patient who called to let us know that our survey was impressive and that she really enjoyed it. It was nice to see that all of the hard work I put into the surveys has paid off!

I have continued to work on our sleep deprivation CAP study, however, it has been very time consuming. Unfortunately, I will not be able to finish scoring all of the records before my fellowship is over. My goal is to have at least 30 out of 50 records completed before I am done. We may have the chance to begin analyzing the data before I leave, since the subjects are their own controls. We will be comparing the difference between the control nights and the sleep deprived nights based on total CAP rate, CAP subtypes, and other factors.

This week, Grand Rounds was a little different. The presentation was about Walter DeWitt Shelden, the “Father of Mayo Neurology”. It was very interesting to learn more about the history of Mayo and how the Neurology section at Mayo was started. In addition, one of the grandchildren was present to share his memories and experiences with Shelden.

“The sciences bring into play the imagination, the building of images in which the reality of the past is blended with the ideals for the future, and from the picture there springs the prescience of genius.”-Dr. Will Mayo