The Paper Work: Part 1

A lot of paperwork has to be submitted in order to get the trip started. The first set of paper work will be focused on the research portion of our trip. I will explain each set of paper work in the most interesting language possible. The main purpose of this entry will be to educate those who are interested in future medical trips and to show friends and family how nerdy Lael and I are.

1) CITI Training- CITI certification is required for all research staff on all research studies with all research institutions. It's an online course that takes about four hours to complete. The majority of the information is common sense; for example, treating a patient like a lab rat is illegal. The training also goes over terminology and history of the research process. Very boring, but also necessary. (Since both of us have prior research experience, we have already been certified)

2) Emory IRB Proposal- The Institutional Review Board (IRB) is the committee that oversees all research studies. For a research study to start, permission has to be granted by the IRB. Since we are doing our study through Emory, we have to submit a paper that details our project. The IRB process is a long process that involves a great deal of paper work. We'll be spending much of Christmas Break working on the Emory IRB. (Tentative submission date is February 1st)

3) University of Ghana Medical School IRB- Much like the Emory IRB, we have to get permission from the Ghana Medical School to do research there. We also need permission to use data from their patients at their hospital. We're expecting most of the paper work to overlap between Emory and University of Ghana. (Due Date January 8, 2010)

4) GFE Fund- The GFE fund is money allocated by endowments given to Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health to send us on our Global Field Experience (GFE). A 2500 word paper has to be submitted to qualify for the money. The GFE paper will be similar to the IRB proposal, but use language that is more appealing. (Due Date March 6, 2010)

We will be working on the paperwork over Christmas break and hope that the majority will be done by the time school starts in January. After the paperwork, it'll be all fun and safari planning! Holla!