Another busy day! We began with a bit of free time, in which we decided to start the 2 supplementary tasks we were assigned. In one, Dr. Lara Lorenzetti, who is researching ways (specifically “savings groups”) to get those in developing countries to adhere to their HIV medicine. She asked for our help in looking through all of the literature to determine which pieces would be useful to her research. In the other, Dr. Rebecca Callahan did research and asked for help in beginning to develop a Powerpoint for her to present her findings. We decided to split it up, with RJ and I working on the former and Chiara and Krishan working on the latter. RJ and I read SO many articles (hence the blog title), but we actually became pretty fast and worked together well. It felt great to know that this small task we were doing would be used for something way bigger than ourselves.
^^ click to see how many articles we sorted through today
We also talked to a couple of people today. First, Dr. Jennifer Ayres discussed her role in the CTID. She had a really interesting perspective because she was one of the only chemists at FHI 360. To tell you the truth, I had been waiting to meet with her since I learned about her chemistry background a couple of days into the job. While talking to her, we learned even more about contraceptives and how they work, specifically as it relates to drugs and dosages.
After we took an hour to explore main street and eat lunch, we headed back to talk to Chris Harmon. He discussed his work with the CTID, which was incredibly different from the others’ in that he was mainly focusing on the technology aspect at the moment. Basically, he was working on compiling a couple of different databases. One was to compile all of the contraceptive technologies that were being worked on, one was a database of the main chemicals that were in contraceptives, and one was a system to determine if using two drugs at once would give negative side effects. I thought the third was the most interesting, as it has to be a pretty complicated system for you to be able to go through all the different pairings and get an answer.
Finally, we met with Holly Burke. She was also a scientist, but she worked for the Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health division (RMNCH). She talked to us about the research aspect of her job, including the studies she had done with injectables and the results that she had gotten. She also talked to us about her career and her journey as a whole.
All in all, a great day! Can’t wait for tomorrow, where we will have 4 (!!) back-to-back meetings and will hear MANY perspectives!