medical chart review

While we wait for the data analysis of the family history study, we’ve been compiling data for another study that a colleague of my sponsor wants to use our information for. This study involves what kinds of medications people were taking when they were diagnosed, specifically “statins,” such as Lipitor or Crestor, which lower cholesterol. It was a bit tedious but I learned a lot about different types of medications and what they’re used for.

Wednesday I also did my first medical chart review, which is when we get faxed over 100 pages of prescriptions, lab results, nurse’s notes, and surgical records from the hospital and we must condense it into a much more organized and streamlined 5-10 page form to keep in the chart with the patient’s interview and consent forms. It was interesting to see how bad doctor’s handwriting really was, and even though the review took a long time, it was kind of fun searching through the extensive documentation to find the important stuff. The way the doctor’s notes are written is sort of funny, they always say someone is a “very pleasant 56-year-old gentleman” or something that totally clashes with the following description of the titanium plate they fused onto the skull or whatever. It’s an interesting look into how medical records work.