All students at the University of Arizona College of Medicine — Phoenix are required to complete a four-year research project in an area of their choice, something unique to only about 40 medical schools across the country.
“Projects can be based on anything,” said Matthew McEchron, the director of scholarly projects at the school. “There are lots of clinical projects about drugs, public health projects and just about anything that involves medical research or medical education. The students are not limited in what type of project they can do.”
In their first year at the school, students work with an adviser and decide where they want to focus their projects. They are also matched with a mentor in the Valley’s medical community.
Students work with an adviser to fill out a prospectus to get their project approved. If the research involves human subjects, students also have to receive approval from the Institutional Review Board.
The project culminates with a thesis detailing the results or findings of the research.
According to Christian Dameff, a fourth-year student specializing in emergency medicine, students often join their mentor on a project.
Dameff is working on submitting the final paperwork for his project.
He was matched with Ben Bobrow, the EMS Medical Director for the Arizona Department of Health Services. Bobrow wanted to start a project that looked at the importance of performing CPR in cases of cardiac arrest.
“(Bobrow) asked me if I wanted to head up this project and I said yes,” Dameff said.
Dameff listened to 500 recorded calls of cardiac arrest and checked each one for certain criteria. That criteria enabled him to measure the ability of dispatchers in certain areas of the state and the country to recognize that CPR is needed and to begin instructing the caller.
“I looked at what happens when someone’s heart stops before they get to the hospital,” Dameff said. “Performing CPR can increase a person’s survival rate tremendously.”
However, some people who call 911 do not know how to do CPR. Dameff said that 911 dispatchers can effectively teach callers CPR over the phone, increasing the survival chances of the victim.
Britton Mehr, a fourth-year student specializing in general surgery, is currently completing revisions on the thesis portion of his scholarly project.
Mehr focused his research on the effects of deep brain stimulation on the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. He worked with Peter Steinmetz at the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at Barrow Neurological Institute.
Deep brain stimulation involves inserting up to two electrodes into a patient’s brain, one on each side. The electrode is connected to a pacemaker placed in the patient’s chest. Patients then go to a clinic where a neurologist programs the electrodes to give off a certain level of electrical current.
Depending on the level of stimulation, patients can experience a reduction in the “cardinal symptoms of Parkinson’s, like shaking, rigidity and posture issues,” Mehr said.
In addition to treating Parkinson’s disease, deep brain stimulation has been used to treat headaches, Tourette syndrome and other movement disorders, he said.
“Deep brain stimulation shows so much promise for so many diseases,” Mehr said. “We are finding results that seem to matter.”
Mehr said that students learn how to effectively manage their time during their second and third years at the school due to classes and clinical training.
“In the fourth year, you can take a four-week elective to focus on the scholarly project,” Mehr said.
In March 2014, both Mehr and Dameff will be showcasing their projects at the school’s annual poster day. Every student’s completed project is also published in the U of A library. Some students also submit their research to peer-reviewed publications, McEchron said.
Dameff said the scholarly projects are a great opportunity because they teach students not only how to write research, but how to read it.
“Students can contribute back to science, and that’s how medicine gets better,” Dameff said.
McEchron said scholarly projects are a valuable and innovative tool in medical education.
“What we try to do is teach people to become lifelong learners and always ask questions. We want (our students) to be an agent of change in their community,” McEchron said.
Contact the reporter at taylor.e.holmes@asu.edu
