Fellow Bio:
I am a second year medical student. I started learning spanish last year in peru. My interest in hepatitis C stems from a project I worked on in Oakland in 2004-05 treating Hep C infections in recovering heroin addicts.

A. Inputs: The idea is to develop and implement a survey in Oaxaca, Mexico of the lay population as well as medical personnel about their knowledge and attitudes about Hepatitis C. the data collected will be used to formulate a health information booklets aimed at educating at risk populations and health care providers.

B. The survey will be conducted in Spanish and will involve a brief set of multiple choice questions that test basic knowledge about likely modes of transmission as well as several open-ended questions to investigate how Hepatitis C is perceived in Oaxaca, and by extension recent Mexican immigrants in the us. This survey will be conducted in conjuction with a clinic in Oaxaca, Mexico, which will serve as a recruiting site for lay subjects and health care personnel.

C. The short-term goal is to conduct a convenience sample of subjects and to gather and tabulate the responses, analyze them for trends, etc. The results will be presented to the locus community in the form of a powerpoint presentation. The program was designed in conjunction with Dr. Shropshire and was submitted to the Social Sciences IRB panel with a request for exempt status.

D. The long-term goal is to use the information from this survey to develop a health information resource that will be accessible and relevant to the local population as well as to Latino communities in the us, particularly in underserved areas.

Project Goals:

My personal goals are to educate myself about healthcare challenges in the developing world, particularly as they relate to blood-borne diseases such as Hep C, and to find ways to make a practical impact, and to improve my medical Spanish skills. In the long term this will make me a stronger advocate.

For the project, I would like to establish a partnership with a clinic in Oaxaca so that this project can continue when I return to the U.S. I hope to use their feedback to target the health information booklet to the needs and challenges facing this community in the area of Hep C., with the long term goal of reducing the incidence of new cases in the state of Oaxaca as well as in communities in the U.S.

Challenges and Solutions:

One of the major challenges is securing IRB approval. The survey is designed to avoid asking any personally-identifiable information so as to minimize the potential risks to survey participants and ease the approval process. This approach also allows us to submit our protocol to the Social Sciences IRB rather than to the Medical IRB.

A second challenge is recruiting sufficient subjects. Partnering with a local clinc will faciliate subject recruitment.

Accomplishments:

With the help and persistence of my Locus mentor, Dr. Shropshire, I was able to secure exempt status for my survey from the social science IRB. This meant that the approval process was streamlined and allowed me to conduct my survey during the available summer timeframe.

I was successful in locating an appropriate venue to conduct the survey. I volunteered at the blood bank associated with the equivalent of the Oaxaca county hospital, which afforded me ready access to both a patient population and health care workers for my survey. I collected approximately 35 lay public respondents and 30 healthcare respondents. The survey results have been tabulated and are currently being analyzed with help from an epidemiologis

Challenges - Past:

One challenge is that reliable data including overall hep C prevalence as well as prevalence in “high risk†groups in Oaxaca is not available at this time, although local efforts are underway to gather this data. This information would/will be useful for targeting health information booklets to those most likely to benefit

Another I encountered was that surveys are not as commonplace in Oaxaca as they are in the US. Many lay subjects, while gracious and receptive to the idea of a survey, were confused about following the directions in terms of checking boxes, etc. I resorted to explaining the directions verbally and with examples to many respondents but in some cases met with only limited success in conveying how to complete the surveys correctly.

Challenges - Future:

Coordinating with contacts at the blood bank moves slowly because they are quite busy with their primary duties. I am working on developing a timeline possibly partnering with contacts here in Madison once the outlines for a health education booklet take shape.

Resource Needs:

Statistical help analyzing results- this is being provided through Dr. Shropshire and his contacts.

October 18, 2006

Graduation Requirements Progress Chart
If you complete the requirements outlined below, you will graduate as a LOCUS fellow.

A indicates the item has been completed.

Completed	When	What	On-line
	Year 1: Beginning of Semester 2	New Project Report	Submit Report
	Year 2: Beginning of Semester 1	Project Update	Submit Update
	Year 2: Beginning of Semester 2	Project Update	Submit Update
	Year 3: Beginning of third year	Project Update	Submit Update
	Year 4: August of fourth year	2-3 page final summary of project that includes a reflective evaluation of the project process	N/A
	Ongoing	Participate in program evaluation (written and/or focus group)	View Options
	By the end of fourth year	Select poster, presentation, paper, creative option or your own idea	View Options

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