Support
This summer my primary responsibility throughout my fellowship was working as a recruitment coordinator for the GoMoms research study. GoMoms is a study focusing on gestational diabetes and understanding blood sugar levels in pregnancy. I spent my time on this study based in the Maternal-Fetal-Medicine department of the Yale New Haven Health facility in New Haven. As a recruitment coordinator, I was responsible for speaking with eligible patients about the study by giving them an overview of the study's purposes, explaining the visits they would complete, and answering any questions or concerns they may have. If interested, I would them follow up with patients via a phone call or text to answer any other questions patients may have and work on getting them scheduled for their first visit if they decide to participate.
As part of the GoMoms study, I also assisted in training a new research associate on the responsibilities of recruitment which they would be taking over after my time working on the study through the fellowship had been completed.
Separate from my responsibilities on the GoMoms study, I also assisted my supervisor, Dr. Merriam, in creating a survey for a research project Dr. Merriam is working on. I learned how to use REDCap, a research survey-creating database, to format the survey using the questions Dr. Merriam had created to be included in the survey. I will be continuing to work on this survey with Dr. Merriam after the completion of my fellowship and, once completed, the research completed will be submitted to journals to potentially be reviewed and published.