A lot of the work I did at the beginning of this month involved implementing some improvements to PalliAssist, the app I am developing for palliative care providers in Brazil. As I mentioned in previous posts, the only legitimate programming I had done before this semester was in MatLab, which is fundamentally different than anything used in app development. Learning the new languages has been exciting because it has been driven by a need to make the required revisions. While I enjoy learning in classroom settings where you get the theory and background for a holistic understanding, learning something so that you can solve a problem immediately at hand gives me a greater drive to do it quickly and effectively.
After learning these languages and make these changes in the time that I was given, I have definitely gained confidence in my ability to learn new skills. A big part of my success, though, came from the help offered by past PalliAssist contributors and others. When faced with challenges in the future, this experience will be one I can look back on to be reminded of my ability to succeed despite lacking some skills, as well as to remind me of the value of getting the right people to help.
After making these changes, I got the opportunity to travel to Barretos, Brazil to meet the doctors I had been working with for PalliAssist. There were so many aspects of the trip that made it worthwhile! Meeting face-to-face with the doctors allowed us to work and communicate much more efficiently. They gave me a tour of their palliative care facility to give me a better understanding of how this app would be used. I learned that this facility in Barretos is the largest cancer hospital in Latin America and how they have been able to use innovative sources of income to increase their quality of care. We even got to see 18-wheelers being transformed into mobile surgical units that provide care to people in remote parts of the world.
Many of our collaborators at the Cancer Hospital in Barretos
Getting a tour of the mobile surgical units in Brazil
Being able to see the palliative care facility first hand renewed my motivation for this project. While she was giving me the tour, Dr Juliana described how this app would enable them to treat far more patients. Because this is the best place to receive palliative care in the country, people often travel long distances to get there. Some patients are treated and sufficiently stable to be released, but their families do not want to risk taking them home because, if their condition worsens, they may not be financially able to bring them back to Barretos. Thus, these families would rather their loved ones finish their lives at the hospital to ensure they don’t have to suffer unnecessarily. Other patients are those who have been readmitted because they were taking their medication improperly. The communication facilitated by PalliAssist will enable these patients to receive higher quality of care at home, keeping them from having to come back to the hospital. This is important because the palliative care facility is often full, meaning if PalliAssist is able to allow more people to receive care at home instead of in the hospital, more people will be able to be treated at the hospital.
After seeing the facility, we also had a meeting with the director of the hospital. He shared with us his vision to see the hospital expanding across Brazil and collaborating with hospitals across the world. With this vision, he reminded us of the importance of our work and the need to finish these projects so that more projects could be started to fulfill that vision.
These were the reasons I wanted to enter this field of work. I chose to be a part of the GMI program because I want to learn how to contribute to increasing the quality of care in underserved global markets. These conversations with Dr. Juliana and the director of the hospital have given me a boost of energy to complete PalliAssist with excellence.
For the sake of balance, it has been important for me to set aside some time each week for things other than work. One aspect of this that I have particularly enjoyed has been my involvement with the club tennis team. We played in a tournament here in Houston this weekend and won our draw! Along the way, we beat two teams from the University of Texas, which was especially satisfying as a Texas A&M alum. Being a tournament for college students, the prize for winning was something they would actually compete for — a free t-shirt.
Team Rice Cake takes home the gold in a tennis tournament hosted in Houston!
GMI continues to give me experiences and skills that are preparing me for an exciting career. I can’t wait to see what’s next!