Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2006

Mentor: Gail E. Peterson, M. Elizabeth Brickner
Department: Cardiology
Room number: HA9.133
Mail Code: 9047
Phone number: 214-645-7519
E-mail: Gail.Peterson@UTSouthwestern.edu
Project title: International Collaborative Study of Endocarditis

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): 0901-501

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): N/A

Project Type (patient-based research, animal-based research, or basic research; this characterization is only to permit a general classification for grouping similar types of projects)
Patient-based

Brief Description of Project:

The project involves collecting patient data for the International Collaborative Study of Infective Endocarditis (ICE). ICE is a prospective cohort study to advance the understanding of endocarditis (IE) in areas that are difficult to study by traditional research methods. Using a standardized case report form, we are collecting data (history, exam and ancillary studies as ordered by the patient's primary care team) on inpatients with IE to include in an international registry. There is no proposed experimental intervention, and management is determined solely by the patient's physicians. Thus, data captured in this study reflects a "real world" approach to the diagnosis and treatment of IE patients.

The ICE prospective cohort study has been designed to address the following goals:

" To determine regional differences in IE
" To characterize aspects of IE that are infrequent in small, single center studies
" To determine predictors of outcomes in a large cohort of IE patients
" To analyze natural experiments regarding practice variation and associated patient outcomes

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

Shail Govani was a fourth year medical student who recently graduated, but was instrumental in collecting data for the ICE project over the last 6 months. He has written and just submitted a case report on a patient with endocarditis from a previously undiagnosed coronary artery fistula.

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