Project Title: Controlling Allergy-Induced Symptoms in Pediatric Patients
BASIS Advisor: Ms. Batrachenko
Internship Location: Kaiser Permanente
Onsite Mentor: Dr. Michael Vu
Immunotherapy is a cutting-edge treatment that is being used not only for allergies but also to for diseases such as cancer and HIV. However, in order to make immunotherapy accessible to different populations, side effects must be controlled to ensure patient safety. By starting with controlling allergy-induced asthmatic symptoms, I will be opening a pathway to control the inhibiting side effects, whether they are gastrointestinal or respiratory, that come as a result of immunotherapy. At Kaiser Permanente, I will look into clinical studies that have been conducted to treat asthma in pediatric patients, including any drug and oral treatments, in order to uncover a treatment or combination of treatments that can be used to control debilitating symptoms.
My Posts
Week 12: Finishing Up
May 09, 2019
This week, I finished up some problems with my statistical analysis. My internal advisor helped me realize that I was only doing a proportion test on single studies rather than comparing them as a whole, so I fixed that. I also found myself already wondering how the rest of my summer was going to be […]
Week 11: Writing It Up
Apr 29, 2019
After finishing up all the statistics and literature search points, I started writing my research paper, which is the final product of my senior project. I will be including a background section, methods/results section, discussion/conclusion section, and finally a literature cited section. From that, I will create an abstract that I will submit for publication. […]
Week 10: Statistical Results
Apr 28, 2019
After spending some time refreshing myself on how to do two proportion z-tests, I was able to sort out my studies and compare them. I was looking for the existence of a significant difference in the probability of symptoms occurring between the participant and control groups to determine whether or not oral immunotherapy combined with […]
Week 9: Which Statistical Test?
Apr 24, 2019
After talking to my internal advisor, I have decided to choose the two proportion z-test for my project. It is used to determine whether or not the difference between two proportions, occurrence of symptoms in the control and study group in my case, is significant. The conditions of a two proportion z-test are that the […]
Week 8: Statistics 101
Apr 24, 2019
This week, I focused on how to conduct statistical tests on clinical research data. I followed an article published by the British Medical Journal to give me a rundown of what to do. The first step is to decipher what kind of data you’re dealing with, whether it is quantitative or categorical. Quantitative data can […]
Week 7: My Weekly Schedule
Apr 10, 2019
This week, I focused more on the clinical side of my project rather than the research side. As a shadow in the allergy clinic, I get to observe the common, reoccurring symptoms that occur in those experiencing asthma, whether it’s chronic or allergic. Those symptoms are usually wheezing, runny nose, and hay fever, and if […]
Week 6: Symptoms and Results
Mar 26, 2019
This week, I focused on the symptomatic outcomes of the trials I’m including. The most common symptoms found in patients that are undergoing oral immunotherapy are atopic dermatitis, or eczema, asthma, allergic rhinitis, or hay fever, and gastrointestinal symptoms. In most studies, there was intermittent asthma rather than moderate to persistent asthma due to the […]
Week 5: Finalizing My Literature Search
Mar 26, 2019
After finding six studies that fit my inclusion and exclusion criteria, I started entering the data from those studies into my spreadsheet. In terms of the initial, escalation, and maintenance dosages, it all varies based on the studies being conducted. Some studies have a desensitization dose of 4000 mg of the allergen, while others set […]
Week 4: Compiling Literature
Mar 18, 2019
After implementing my inclusion and exclusion criteria, I started laying out the literature details of various studies that I have found that can be used in my literature review. The different food allergies that I have found so far include allergies to peanuts, milk, and eggs, which are also some of the most common food […]
Week 3: Narrowing It Down
Mar 09, 2019
After poring over the literature on immunotherapy used to treat food allergies in conjunction with Omalizumab (OML) treatment, I was able to create a list of inclusion and exclusion criteria. In terms of inclusion criteria, I decided to look at studies testing patients from ages 6 to 18. Choosing the age of 6 was a […]
Week 2: Starting My Literature Search
Mar 03, 2019
After going over the causes of allergic asthma last week, I started looking for some literature on Pubmed pertaining to my project so that I could get a feel for what I wanted my inclusion and exclusion criteria to be. I looked into several articles about Omalizumab (OML), which is a treatment drug owned by […]
Week 1: What Causes Allergic Asthma?
Feb 20, 2019
For the first week of my project, I explored how allergic asthma exactly comes to be and why. Here’s what I learned. Allergens trigger bronchoconstriction, which means there is increased mucus secretion and thickening of airway walls that contributes to narrowing of airway lumen, leading to allergy-induced asthmatic symptoms such as shortness of breath, wheezing, […]