Swagat D's Senior Project Blog

Project Title:  Investigating the inaccuracies of blood pressure medications
BASIS Advisor: Dr. Georgi
Internship Location: Southwest Kidney Institute at Surprise
Onsite Mentor: Dr. Nandini Sharma



Project Abstract

Imagine a vessel pumping out excess waste and regulating fluid levels constantly, ensuring you are healthy at all times. Although our minds would tend to think of the heart at first, here I’m referring to our kidneys. They are vital to our health, regulating our blood levels, balancing our electrolytes and water, and producing important hormones key to maintaining homeostasis. Yet, when our kidneys begin to fatigue, they don’t perform their daily tasks optimally, especially as we age. Luckily, medicine and drugs in the past century have rapidly evolved, leading way to multiple drug classes for blood pressure. Nephrology, the study of kidneys, is centered around blood pressure, and the various classes of blood pressure medication like beta blockers and diuretics aim to address the fatigue in kidneys. Yet, a new problem arises with these medications: the lack of proper communication between doctors and patients. Seniors especially are most susceptible for not taking their medications because they often get confused very easily with their medication, often forget when to take their medications, or don’t remember when to start or stop taking their medications. This research aims to document the frequency of medical mistakes that seniors make and observe if there are certain trends within the data, such as often forgetting to take one medication, not communicating with others about their medication changes, and so on. By analyzing the data, I’d be able to conclude whether this phenomenon statistically has local nuances to explain the non-adherence of medicine or that the data can be generalized to the American people. With blood pressure being one of the essential components of our health, addressing common reasons of miscommunication with medications would enable us to tackle and provide solutions to counteract those issues.

    My Posts:

  • Investigating the communication mistakes of blood pressure medications: Final Post

    Looking back at this senior research project, I can confidently say that this was a revolutionizing experience for me. Not only did I understand a new section of medicine, but I also contributed my data analysis to aid the patients and doctors alike at Southwest Kidney Institute. First, the one sample t-test I conducted is... Read More

  • Investigating the inaccuracies of blood pressure medications: Week 10

    If you thought this was my last post, SIKE! This is my penultimate post, and in Week 8’s post, I said that I would see you guys in the antepenultimate blog. That means third-to-last, and this week’s is the second-to-last one. Anyways, let’s get back to the research part for today’s blog!   This week... Read More

  • Investigating the inaccuracies of blood pressure medications: Week 9

    Welcome to one of my final blogs, folks. As I’m wrapping up my blog posts, I have to say, it’s been a nice journey all around, but I’ll save my reminiscence for the final blog post. This week was much less uneventful because I’m going on break, vacationing in California. But, I did collect some... Read More

  • Investigating the inaccuracies of blood pressure medications: Week 8

    It’s always good to get back to your roots once in a while, and I’m glad this week does just that! What’s up everyone! I’m back with my 8th blog post in my Senior Research Journey. This week was definitely a chiller week compared to last week, but it’s nice to have those small breaks... Read More

  • Investigating the inaccuracies of blood pressure medications: Week 7

    It’s finally April, and as spring is starting to bloom with flowers, my work is starting to bloom with solutions to medication inaccuracies. How’s it going, everyone! This week fulfills a promise I made to myself, finding solutions to medication inaccuracies. This is the sole reason why I’m conducting my research, as simple documentation often... Read More

  • Investigating the communication mistakes of blood pressure medications: Week 6

    I’m back, folks! Welcome to the second half of my blog posts, where I attempt to tie everything together, starting with the data. This week was so jam packed with shadowing medical assistants and Dr. Sharma, that I was able to get a whole bunch of medication inaccuracies. This was amazing because I wanted to... Read More

  • Investigating the communication mistakes of blood pressure medications: Week 5

    This week was a surprising week, and that’s how it is! The halfway mark is always like that. Much like last week, I spent more time talking to the patients. Although my focus is on my medication research, I still made sure to interact with the seniors, as getting exposure on talking and relating to... Read More

  • Investigating the communication mistakes of blood pressure medications: Week 4

    Hello There! Thanks for coming back for my blog post! This week is probably one of my favorites, as I spent more time with the patients and learned more about the kidneys. First, I spent more time with the patients, as Dr. Sharma wanted me to talk to them and understand what they were going... Read More

  • Investigating the communication mistakes of blood pressure medications: Week 3

    Hello There! Nice to see you at my 3rd blog post! This week was very interesting, especially data wise, so let’s get into it.  Acquiring the data still remained the same, but something amazing happened today. I got over 30 data points! You might be wondering what the significance is for this. Well, like I... Read More

  • Investigating the communication mistakes of blood pressure medications: Week 2

    Hi Guys! Welcome back to my blog post!  During this week, I learned a lot of fascinating things about nephrology and dived into the statistical aspect of my research! While I was shadowing a medical assistant Mayra, I noticed the questions and communication level she employed. She made sure to ask the pharmacy locations, primary... Read More

  • Investigating the communication mistakes of blood pressure medications: Introduction

    Investigating the communication mistakes of blood pressure medications: Introduction Ever wondered how many medication errors are present in clinics? If so, you’ve come to the right place! Hi! My name is Swagat Doki, and I’m doing a Research Project investigating the medication mistakes in a clinic called Southwest Kidney Institute. It is an institute where people... Read More

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