Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2012

Mentor:  Dr. Steven Wolf                 
Department:   Surgery          
Room number:  E5.503       
Mail Code:  9158                 
Phone number:  214-645-8300      
E-mail:  steven.wolf@utsouthwestern.edu             
Project title:  Pain assessment and management in recovering burn victims

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable):       STU 062010-092

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable):      

Project Type: Patient-based

Brief Description of Project:

Pain management represents an important component of inpatient care, and burn victims encounter a unique set of challenges in their recovery. The objectives of this study are to chronicle the use of opioid pain medications in relation to pain scores, painful interventions, and time from injury as primary variables.  Other conditions such as age, gender, burn site, presence of donor sites, etc. will also be assessed.  We will do this for the entire hospitalization for 50 patients (subjects) with greater than 10% TBSA burns to gather pilot information on a resource limited basis.  The findings of this project have implications for assessing the efficacy of current pain management strategies for burn patients in a hospital setting. 

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

I have mentored medical students and undergraduate students in the summer for most of the past 5 years (7 total).  Each of these students has gone on to complete the assigned project and present the data at a national meeting.  The data have been incorporated into 7 manuscripts that are either published, in press, submitted, or in preparation. 

Farhy LS, Mora A, Kovatchev B, Wolf SE, Wade CE.  Average daily risk range (ADRR) as a measure of glycaemic risk is predictive of mortality in the ICU: a retrospective study in a burn ICU.  Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology 2011, 5: 1087-1098.

Pidcoke HF, Wanek SM, Rohleder LS, Holcomb JB, Wolf SE, Wade CE. Glucose variability is associated with high mortality after burn.  Journal of Trauma 2009, 67: 990-995.

Pidcoke HF, Salinas J, Wanek SM, Concannon M, Loo F, Wirfel KL, Holcomb JB, Wolf SE, Wade CE.  Patterns of exogenous insulin requirement reflect insulin sensitivity changes in trauma.  American Journal of Surgery 2007, 194: 798-803.

Murray CK, Hoffmaster RM, Schmidt D, Ward JA, Wolf SE.  Evaluation of white blood cell count, neutrophil percentage, and elevated temperature as predictors of bloodstream infection in burn ICU patients.  Archives of Surgery 2007, 142: 639-642.