Week 2:
Mayo Clinic

June 3, 2013

This past week I worked on compiling a list of patients for our survey-based project regarding Parkinson’s disease and REM behavioral disorder. I read over 250 patient charts to create two mailing lists: patients with Parkinson’s disease and patients with both Parkinson’s disease and REM behavioral disorder. We started with a list of patients (50-80 years of age) with Parkinsonism, meaning that they have Parkinson’s disease symptoms. From there, I reviewed the charts to determine if they were diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. These chart reviews allowed me to see different styles of doctors as well as observe patterns in patients with Parkinson’s disease. For example, patients who used carbidopa-levodopa for treatment usually developed levodopa-induced dyskinesia and compulsive behaviors such as gambling. This task further established my desire to become a physician’s assistant. I learned a lot from reviewing the charts; however, I would prefer interacting with the patients.

At the end of the week, I met with Dr. St. Louis, my site mentor, to discuss some possible topics for an individual research project. The research project will investigate cyclic alternating patterns (CAP) and the clinical correlates, such as sleep disturbances or sleep deprivation. Once the other students working in his lab arrive, we will decide on projects and hypotheses. I also attended a subspecialty conference with my site mentor regarding epilepsy. This lecture, titled “Rare Diseases Presenting as Seizures”, identified clinical clues in patients with seizures that suggest other etiologies. He presented cases in which the patients with seizures were diagnosed with MELAS syndrome and long QT syndrome. From this lecture, I learned that medicine is not always straight-forward. You have to look at each case from a different angle to ensure you are not missing anything.

After a long week of rain and thunderstorms, we finally got some sunshine this weekend! I spent the weekend getting to know students in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program at Mayo. We enjoyed the sun while playing some football and soccer in a nearby park. I also went out to dinner with my roommates at an Italian restaurant in downtown Rochester.

“The glory of medicine is that it is constantly moving forward, that there is always more to learn.” –Dr. Will Mayo