Finally!

I have finally gotten my official volunteer card! It is beautiful, and red, and oh so official. Today, after taking my very last physical exam, I started my first day!

Here is a background on what I will be doing:

Dr. Miloh is the only Pediatric Hepatologist in the state. He works in one of the biggest GI (gastrointerology) departments in Arizona. Additionally, Phoenix Children's Hospital is one of the only hospitals in the state to offer full GI/gastro/hepatology care for adolescents. Needless to say, this is an amazing opportunity.

As an intern, the more I do, the more I can do. Dr. Miloh wants me to start out small (ish) and then proceed from there. Today, I was surprised to find that when a patient visits the hospital, the doctor assigned to their case types up a Case Report at the end of each visit. Every time the patient walks into a hospital to get tested or to consult with a MD, it is recorded in a case study-like letter. The letters contain information on the patients. This information includes Reason for Visit, Physical Report (weight, height, etc.), Lab Work (if they have it done. This includes blood tests and cultures.), and, finally, the Assessment or Impression, which is the final diagnosis a doctor will give the patient and includes a Plan of Action for the patient to get better.

Each patient will often receive multiple diagnosis, especially in the Gastro department. The diagnosis actually reflects all the people the patient has seen. For example, if a patient admitted to Phoenix Children's saw a geneticist, a neurologist, and a general gastrologist, the doctor writing the report will write something along the lines of, "Today I had the pleasure of seeing XXXX, a fourteen year old girl who has Trisomy 21, numbness in her fingers, and abdominal pain." Please note that the above was a fictional example and does not reflect any real patient at the hospital.

At the hospital, the only way to get the diagnosis of a patient is to read through their case file. The files are on the computer, but they are scanned PDF documents, which means that it is impossible to search for one diagnosis without reading the entire case history of each patient. This, obviously, is  a problem. Dr. Miloh cannot do a research project on types of diseases because the information is not easily accessible.

My job is to read the case study, extract only the diagnosis that pertains to liver diseases (AKA Hepatology), and put the diagnosis on an Excell spreadsheet that contains only the Medical Record Number and the first and last name of each patient. When I am done, the entire Hepatology department will be able to conduct research, look up diagnoses for patients quickly, and compare treatment plans from one patient to another suffering from the same disease.

Phoenix Children's is a very efficient hospital, They are able to process hundreds of patients every day. The Gastro department has 636 patients. Therefore, I will be reading 636 case studies.

This task may seem Sisyphean in scope, but I have confidence I can do it in a timely manner!

Wishing you all the very best,
Lior