Request for Funding

Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2004

Mentor: Rebecca Gruchalla, MD, PhD
Department: Internal Medicine, Division of Allergy & Immunology
Mail Code: 8859
Phone number: 214-510-1944 (pager)
E-mail: Rebecca.Gruchalla@UTSouthwestern.edu
Contact E-mail: John.Alexander@UTSouthwestern.edu
Project title: Statistical Analysis of Pediatric Asthma Screening Survey

Human subjects IRB approved project number: pending

Project Type: Patient-based

Brief Description of Project:

This project involves the statistical analysis of a proposed pediatric asthma screening survey. It will be administered to children in the CMC ER who have physician-diagnosed asthma. Asthma severity will be determined by interview at that time as well (eg- mild persistent, moderate persistent, etc.). It is expected that statistical analysis will show higher survey scores to correlate with higher asthma severity when compared with lower survey scores. The benefit of this project is that it will contribute to efforts to create a simple, yet effective, asthma screening survey since there is no simple "gold standard" method of diagnosing asthma at this time. This project requires a motivated student that is able to work effectively without a large amount of supervision. The student's role will primarily involve data gathering through direct patient interview, but will also entail data analysis and publication of findings. Consider participating in this project if you want an opportunity to publish as well as some experience interacting with patients prior to your clinical years. Please direct specific inquiries regarding this project to John Alexander, the Research Coordinator for this project, at John.Alexander@UTSouthwestern.edu.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

Dan Martin (UTSW Class of 2002)-
o Martin, D.F., Gardner, K.H., and Gruchalla, R.S. Preparation and analysis of penicilloic acid and penilloic acid using high resolution Nuclear magnetic resonance. J Allergy Clin Immunol 105:1021, 2000.

John Alexander (MS3)-
o Alexander, J., Roy, L., Ahmad, N., Gruchalla, R. Validity and reliability analysis of the ACAAI asthma survey in a Dallas inner city pilot study. Presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, 2002.

o Alexander, J., Roy, L, Ahmad, N., Gruchalla, R. Parent/child agreement analysis of an asthma/allergy screening questionnaire in a Dallas inner city pediatric population. Presented at the 2003 UT Southwestern Medical Research Forum

Robert Silge (Doris Duke Fellow and MS4)-
o Silge, R., Gruchalla, R. Improved screening of asthma and asthma symptoms in select Dallas elementary schools. Presented at the 2004 UT Southwestern Medical Student Research Forum.

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