Remember all the BTB technologies Jessica and I brought with us to Barretos? Yes..no..maybe? If you’re not sure, then I highly recommend that you read the “BTB Technologies” section in my first post and then come back to all the updates!
So yes, the GFM and the gynecological stirrups are here with us in Barretos. Since their first introductions to our mentors here, they’ve started more discussions of new potential projects and ways to help. Jessica and I have met with various doctors in different departments around the cancer hospital, and everyone has been very interested and helpful. Let me walk you through each of our meetings and progress from these past two weeks!
Hello stirrups!
To start off our second week, we made a quick visit to see the carpenter on Tuesday. An hour or so later, the wooden gynecological stirrups made its first appearance here!
With the wooden frame finished, the stirrups still needs padding around the feet holders for the comfort of the patients. So we are now looking forward to visiting the mobile unit construction site in order to add this finishing touch.
Cytopathology
On Wednesday, we met with Dr. Adhemar again along with Dr. Cristovam, the director of the pathology department. We presented the GFM along with my phone to demonstrate the GFM’s abilities to capture digital images. Dr. Cristovam quickly dove into new ideas and suggestions! First, he made a couple of important and wonderful suggestions on how the GFM could be improved for the use of telepathology. Then he suggested that we talk to an infectious disease specialist to discuss the GFM’s potential contributions , especially with its fluorescent microscopy capabilities. Lastly, Dr. Cristovam and Dr. Adhemar believed that the GFM would be a great tool in the education sector. We couldn’t be more grateful for the wide variety of ideas!
Education Mobile Unit
We immediately followed up with Dr. Cristovam and Dr. Ahemar’s suggestion later on Wednesday afternoon and stopped by the office of Dr. Henrique, the coordinator of the education mobile units in the prevention department. He first briefed us on the goal of the education mobile unit, which was to promote interest in science and raise awareness of cancer in kids. As he described the goal, my eyes brightened— I thought the idea was wonderful! Especially since education and cultural barriers are often encountered in rural regions, starting cancer education early can be a potential solution that tackles the roots of health disparity and ignorance in the next generation. I only wanted to learn more about the project after that!
Like the cancer prevention mobile units, the education mobile units would be revamped trucks. Half of the truck would be set up like a classroom while the other half would be set up like a laboratory– and this is where the GFM comes in. Our proposal to Dr. Henrique was to include the GFM in the laboratory part so that the students could look through the slides together through the cell phone screen. Dr. Henrique eagerly asked us to meet with him later to test the GFM with his slides. He also suggested that we look into constructing a compatible stage for iPads due its larger screen and its easier connectivity to larger monitors. Later in the week, we followed up our proposal with Dr. Henrique and tested the GFM with Dr. Henriques’s own slides and with an iPad . Everything was good to go! We also got the dimensions of the Ipad in order to think of design ideas for a temporary stage!
Presentation to post-graduate students
On the Friday of our third week here, we were kindly invited to Dr. Humberto’s class to present our technologies to the post-graduate students. I thought it was a wonderful opportunity for us, the students, to exchange new and different ideas, as Jessica and I talk about new technologies and as the post-grad students talk about new health implementations. Sure enough, in the Q&A session, we got more wonderful ideas about how the GFM could help! We couldn’t wait to discuss these ideas with the doctors!
(Left to right: Dr. Thiago, Jessica, GFM, Stirrups, me and Dr. Humberto)
Pap-Smear testing
Most recently, we met with Dr. Humberto and Dr. Cristovam to brainstorm the idea of using the GFM on the mobile units to improve cervical cancer screening. The Papanicolaou smear or pap-smear is currently used on the mobile units for cervical cancer screening. After cells of the cervix are collected using the pap-smear, they are then stained and observed under a microscope by a trained cytopathology technician, who then makes the proper diagnosis. The limitation now is that the staining and the diagnosis steps cannot be completed in the mobile unit while it is in remote rural areas. Therefore, the idea that Dr. Humberto has is to use the GFM to overcome this barrier for highly suspicious lesions. The proposal is that, with the addition of the GFM, highly suspicious lesions could be identified using the microscope on the mobile unit, and images of these lesions could be sent immediately to the main hospital for the proper diagnosis. As part of the brainstorming session, Dr. Cristovam kindly said he could help us prepare a pilot study at the hospital before we test it on the mobile unit. I thought the meeting was very fascinating and productive, and I can’t wait for the pilot study later this week to test out the GFM!
And more…!
Everyday has been different here. Some days, we are meeting about the technologies; some days, we are learning, either about mammography, pap smears, teledermatology or the mobile units; and some days, we are helping with the educational and promotional aspects of the mobile units. On the very special days, we’re out in remote rural areas with the mobile units! But more about all this later– so stay tuned for an upcoming post!