4 Weeks: Now What?

I have been in India for 13 out of 40 days, and today, I finished the bulk of my research project.  Now what?  Let me back up.  The reason why I am in India is to help set up a program that will allow CMC's Endocrinology Department to assess its diabetes education program.  Several times a year, different workers in the healthcare field - doctors, nurses, ophthalmologists, orthopedic shoemakers, etc. - from all over India can come to CMC for training in diabetic patient care.  The ultimate goal is that hospitals and clinics all over the country, and even internationally, will be able to run specialized diabetes clinics for the rapidly growing diabetic population in South Asia, and hopefully this model can then be spread to other countries that are also facing this quickly growing but frequently overlooked epidemic.

What does this mean for me?  It's not nearly as impressive as the above sounds.  The reason I'm involved at all is because Einstein and CMC have a partnership in this project through the World Diabetes Foundation.  Einstein, with its large interest in global health, wants to help hospitals like CMC to be able to do this kind of outreach in their own countries and then spread it to other countries that may not have the infrastructure quite yet.  India was an ideal starting point because it has the qualities of being both a developing country as well as one with healthcare infrastructure and resources that make this sort of project possible.  Since CMC has been running these educational programs for several years but has not, at this point, conducted a systematic evaluation of their effectiveness, Einstein is in a good position to jump-start the evaluation program so that CMC can make adjustments and changes if necessary.  We are doing this evaluation by having the doctors fill out baseline monitoring surveys before they come for their training, as well as several follow-up surveys afterward.  My job in all of this, as humble as it may sound, is to set up a database and begin the process of recording the data from these surveys.  And today I finished.

A quiet day at CMC

That's not to say my job is done.  I will still need to teach the staff how to use the computer programs for the data, so that they'll be able to continue the work when I'm gone.  Also, follow-up surveys are still trickling in one by one, day by day.  The bulk of my work, though, is done.  So what will I do the rest of my time here?  I will have lots of opportunities to observe different aspects of healthcare at CMC.  I've already seen a bit of inpatient, outpatient, and specialized clinics in the Endocrine Department; I'm hoping to also visit other departments like surgery and the Low-Cost Effective Care Unit, or whatever else pops up.  I'm thinking that the final 4 weeks will be scattered and hectic, but I'm looking forward to them.