Week 4 - Phase 1 complete!

GUESS WHO IS BACK FROM AUSTRALIA!?!?!?!

Let me tell you, attending meetings and collecting interviewees is so much easier when you are working in person. Most of the week looked like reaching out to people to participate in my study and sending them my quick google form!

By meeting my external advisor during the week, I was able to make a quick and simple google form to send to potential interviewees. As of right now, I have six confirmed interviewees, and I have scouted out an additional six people. At first, I was worried I would not be able to reach my goal of interviewing ten people, but I am quite proud of my sample size.

The google form consists of multiple questions that ask for one’s age, weight, height, past medical history, a 1-10 pain scale, and interview availability. With this data, I can quickly see if there are any trends between various patients that have been diagnosed with Plantar Fasciitis. By the time this blog is published, I will have completed my first interview! I am excited to start with the second half of my project.

The second half of this project will look like interviews, analysis of data, and potentially more literature review. My literature review is yet to be fully completed and a few articles need more analysis.

This week was a time where I got the opportunity to analyze UpToDate. This amazing platform has all of the latest Plantar Fasciitis (PF) updates and has tons information related to PF on one web page. Everything is on the website is sourced and verified making things easy to trace! This web page consists of information related to common clinical features, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. I still need to continue my analysis, but I am excited to continue adding to my literature review.

The articles I am reading this week:

• Comparative efficacy of corticosteroid injection and non-invasive treatments for plantar fasciitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis
• Physiotherapeutic Interventions for Individuals Suffering From Plantar Fasciitis: A Systematic Review
• Plantar fasciitis in physicians and nurses: a nationwide population-based study.
  
  This next phase of my project consists of working on my end products. This includes a final presentation to the Basis faculty, a presentation to teachers and students prone to PF, and a meta-analysis paper that also includes the data from my interviews.
  
  The last thing I want to mention is my future interview with a foot medical specialist (podiatrist). I potentially have one interview and will update you guys as soon as possible!
  
  But that is it for this week guys, thanks for reading this far and cya all next week : )