This past week, we participated in our first cancer research lecture from the Dell Medical School. In preparation, Daniel led a discussion during our Cancer Research Journal Club about how research papers are structured and good practices for research talks such as looking into background of presenters and taking notes. He reiterated that the best type of notes was simply ‘taking notes.’
During our lecture, Dr. Brandon Allport-Altill presented about ‘Prevention, Diagnosis and Screening in Primary Care’. He explained the importance of primary care and how improved access, increased quality of care, early management of health problems, reductions in unnecessary specialty care, and focus on prevention all lead to improved patient health. Primary care may not be flashy, but it provides the foundation for long-term patient success before deeper issues arise.
Then, the components of a good screening test were discussed and when to administer such a test. A test may not be right for a patient for a variety of reasons such as cost, whether a treatment exists, or if the condition will seriously affect the patient’s life. Latency of the condition, sensitivity and specificity of the test, and acceptability of screening are also important factors. Guidelines for whether a service such as a screening test is recommended are established by the United States Preventive Services Task Force from letter ‘A’ through ‘I’. Highly recommended services are represented by ‘A’ and a recommendation of ‘I’ means insufficient evidence exists to recommend for or against the service.
My favorite part of the talk was when Dr. Altill presented different patient case studies and we talked through whether a screening test made sense for the patient based on the good screening test criterion described above and the patient’s symptoms, age, and possible condition.
Dr. Altill touched on research and the hierarchy of scientific evidence in trials and experiments. The figure below provides specific studies and how they compare relative to others. Getting a brief overview of how research subjects in trials and experiments progress was interesting and important in understanding how far research being published is to widespread adoption and application in clinical settings.
This research talk was interesting and good preparation for the research talks that Zach and I will be attending along with our Pod 2 mentors at the Society of Mathematical Biology (SMB) annual conference this week. I am looking forward to hearing from the presenters at the SMB conference and the upcoming speakers in the Dell Medical Cancer Research Series.
Started our cell culture work today! Excited but scared about messing up the cells haha.
– Sahil Patel | Case Western Reserve University
