Daniela's Pediatric Research Funding
Donation protected
First, thank you.
My name is Daniela and I am currently a rising fourth year UCSF medical student, preparing for a year long international research project in Honduras and I need your help.
Prior to coming to UCSF Medical school I had always known I would pursue research. Having published multiple papers, and worked in several research labs, evidence-based medicine is my way of making many of my arguments for those both from my own community and abroad.
I was very lucky to have received my school's summer research grant in 2014 for a very succesful 3 month long project n Uganda improving the lives of many coinfected with TB and HIV, two of the most deadly diseases both here and abroad.
Photo: My last day at Mulago Hospital with my phenomenal research team in Kampala, Uganda.
In the past couple months I have been scrambling to find funding and applying broadly to many scholarships, however many of the acceptance deadlines are not till months from now and the deadline to take a year off.
I know I am taking a huge risk. What if I am unable to find ample funding? Having put my studies on hold, I would be unable to return till the following year. However, the true risk would be to give up, in the face of what seems like an insurmountable task.
I was told by my advisors, and even the vice chancellor that there was not ample academic funding, a base that once touted that we as students were lucky that we had so much research funding available to us, and that instead I should seek outside scholarships or turn to family.
Unlike many of my classmates I come from a very humble background. However, my mom, a single mother, taught me that what we may lack financially, we must fight to make up in other ways. My 'go to': academics.
About the project:
Photo: Filming for the Children's Fund Scholarship discussing the importance of exclusive breastfeeding in Honduras. Me, the director behind the camera.
For the next year, I will be the lead student researcher for Transdisciplinary Immersion in Global Health Research and Education (TIGRE), a multicampus “global health lab” for interprofessional health training and research on Roatán Island, Honduras. All studies are focused on ensuring the well-being of a new generation, the most vulnerable around the world: children.
A longstanding, highly successful interprofessional partnership between UCSF, Global Healing (a Berkeley-based non-profit organization) and Roatán’s Public Hospital has hosted faculty and trainees from UCSF, UCB, UCD, UCLA, and UCSD. The nascent (since 2014) TIGRE program has leveraged this infrastructure to develop a transdisciplinary research-training program in global health for trainees (professional and doctoral students) across UC campuses, as well as aspiring Honduran investigators.
Dr. Arup Roy-Burman, UCSF Director of the Pediatric ICU and the lead investigator for TIGRE
Tackling a new epidemic, Zika Virus
Despite evidence in support of ZIKV’s role in congenital malformations (e.g. microcephaly) and fetal demise, the actual risk has yet to be quantified and may be inflated by reporting bias. Specifically, microcephaly has multiple infectious (e.g. toxoplasmosis, cytomegalovirus) and non-infectious causes (e.g. alcohol or drug exposure, malnutrition) which were not routinely reported prior to the ZIKV epidemic, likely conflating current estimates of transmission. Given uncertainty surrounding the true vs. estimated risk of ZIKV in pregnancy, we propose (i) to conduct a prospective cohort study to determine the relative risk of Zika virus infection and associated complications in babies born to pregnant women in Roatán during an active epidemic and (ii) to compare those data with baseline incidence prior to the epidemic.
The importance of breastfeeding
Much of the developing world faces the challenge of low maternal adherence to optimal infant feeding practices, such as exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life. The town of Roatán, Honduras, is no exception, where a mere 30% of mothers breastfeed -- likely contributing to the staggeringly high infant mortality rate of 72 per 1,000. This project aims to promote breast-feeding adoption and adherence in Roatán -- where there are 500,000 more cell phone lines than people – by partnering with Medic Mobile, a San Francisco-based non-profit that has developed a web-based SMS platform. This tool will allow for the dissemination of messages created by Pixar animators rewarding mothers for attaining breastfeeding milestones and counteracting commercial and societal pressures to formula-feed. The use of this platform has public health implications far beyond breastfeeding in Honduras, potentially impacting billions of lives around the globe.
Photo: The main hospital of Rotan, where I hope to spend the next year improving the lives of the many children there.
I ask you to join me in making what I have worked for every moment leading up to this, a reality.
You will not only be helping me, but the children of Honduras and soon thereafter, millions around the world, as we continue to implement our findings around the globe.
I do hope you will follow me during this journey, and that for the entire year. I will be blogging, via video all our efforts and I invite you to watch as you too will be aiding to change the lives of the many.
My warmest and utmost thank you,
Daniela
As asked my the gofundmeadministrators:
1. Who I am: Fourth Year Medical Student, who will be taking a research year to study Zika and Exclusive Breastfeeding in Honduras
Collaborators: Pixar animation studios and Medic Mobile
2. Where you're from: University of California, San Francisco Medical School.
3. Your relationship to the parties you're raising funds for: I am raising funds for my own research project.
4. How the funds will be spent: Competing interests: None, will be only working with non-profits
Expenses for 12 months:
Travel: $4400
Lodging: $6000
Food: $3500
Materials: $5000
Media: $2000
Data Analysis: $2000
Human Subjects and Payments: $3000
5. How you intend to get the funds to those in need: This is for the expenses above to allow me to complete the research project detailed above.
My name is Daniela and I am currently a rising fourth year UCSF medical student, preparing for a year long international research project in Honduras and I need your help.
Prior to coming to UCSF Medical school I had always known I would pursue research. Having published multiple papers, and worked in several research labs, evidence-based medicine is my way of making many of my arguments for those both from my own community and abroad.
I was very lucky to have received my school's summer research grant in 2014 for a very succesful 3 month long project n Uganda improving the lives of many coinfected with TB and HIV, two of the most deadly diseases both here and abroad.
Photo: My last day at Mulago Hospital with my phenomenal research team in Kampala, Uganda.In the past couple months I have been scrambling to find funding and applying broadly to many scholarships, however many of the acceptance deadlines are not till months from now and the deadline to take a year off.
I know I am taking a huge risk. What if I am unable to find ample funding? Having put my studies on hold, I would be unable to return till the following year. However, the true risk would be to give up, in the face of what seems like an insurmountable task.
I was told by my advisors, and even the vice chancellor that there was not ample academic funding, a base that once touted that we as students were lucky that we had so much research funding available to us, and that instead I should seek outside scholarships or turn to family.
Unlike many of my classmates I come from a very humble background. However, my mom, a single mother, taught me that what we may lack financially, we must fight to make up in other ways. My 'go to': academics.
About the project:
Photo: Filming for the Children's Fund Scholarship discussing the importance of exclusive breastfeeding in Honduras. Me, the director behind the camera.For the next year, I will be the lead student researcher for Transdisciplinary Immersion in Global Health Research and Education (TIGRE), a multicampus “global health lab” for interprofessional health training and research on Roatán Island, Honduras. All studies are focused on ensuring the well-being of a new generation, the most vulnerable around the world: children.
A longstanding, highly successful interprofessional partnership between UCSF, Global Healing (a Berkeley-based non-profit organization) and Roatán’s Public Hospital has hosted faculty and trainees from UCSF, UCB, UCD, UCLA, and UCSD. The nascent (since 2014) TIGRE program has leveraged this infrastructure to develop a transdisciplinary research-training program in global health for trainees (professional and doctoral students) across UC campuses, as well as aspiring Honduran investigators.
Dr. Arup Roy-Burman, UCSF Director of the Pediatric ICU and the lead investigator for TIGRE
Tackling a new epidemic, Zika Virus
Despite evidence in support of ZIKV’s role in congenital malformations (e.g. microcephaly) and fetal demise, the actual risk has yet to be quantified and may be inflated by reporting bias. Specifically, microcephaly has multiple infectious (e.g. toxoplasmosis, cytomegalovirus) and non-infectious causes (e.g. alcohol or drug exposure, malnutrition) which were not routinely reported prior to the ZIKV epidemic, likely conflating current estimates of transmission. Given uncertainty surrounding the true vs. estimated risk of ZIKV in pregnancy, we propose (i) to conduct a prospective cohort study to determine the relative risk of Zika virus infection and associated complications in babies born to pregnant women in Roatán during an active epidemic and (ii) to compare those data with baseline incidence prior to the epidemic.
The importance of breastfeeding
Much of the developing world faces the challenge of low maternal adherence to optimal infant feeding practices, such as exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life. The town of Roatán, Honduras, is no exception, where a mere 30% of mothers breastfeed -- likely contributing to the staggeringly high infant mortality rate of 72 per 1,000. This project aims to promote breast-feeding adoption and adherence in Roatán -- where there are 500,000 more cell phone lines than people – by partnering with Medic Mobile, a San Francisco-based non-profit that has developed a web-based SMS platform. This tool will allow for the dissemination of messages created by Pixar animators rewarding mothers for attaining breastfeeding milestones and counteracting commercial and societal pressures to formula-feed. The use of this platform has public health implications far beyond breastfeeding in Honduras, potentially impacting billions of lives around the globe.
Photo: The main hospital of Rotan, where I hope to spend the next year improving the lives of the many children there.I ask you to join me in making what I have worked for every moment leading up to this, a reality.
You will not only be helping me, but the children of Honduras and soon thereafter, millions around the world, as we continue to implement our findings around the globe.
I do hope you will follow me during this journey, and that for the entire year. I will be blogging, via video all our efforts and I invite you to watch as you too will be aiding to change the lives of the many.
My warmest and utmost thank you,
Daniela
As asked my the gofundmeadministrators:
1. Who I am: Fourth Year Medical Student, who will be taking a research year to study Zika and Exclusive Breastfeeding in Honduras
Collaborators: Pixar animation studios and Medic Mobile
2. Where you're from: University of California, San Francisco Medical School.
3. Your relationship to the parties you're raising funds for: I am raising funds for my own research project.
4. How the funds will be spent: Competing interests: None, will be only working with non-profits
Expenses for 12 months:
Travel: $4400
Lodging: $6000
Food: $3500
Materials: $5000
Media: $2000
Data Analysis: $2000
Human Subjects and Payments: $3000
5. How you intend to get the funds to those in need: This is for the expenses above to allow me to complete the research project detailed above.
Organizer
Daniela Brissett
Organizer
San Francisco, CA