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HomeArticles Posted by Roland Scaife

Author: Roland Scaife

Roland Scaife / Author

rscaife@antiochcollege.edu

<p><strong>Roland</strong> is a biomedical science major at Antioch College. A member of the class of 2017, his main themes for Co-op positions have been scientific research and medicine. His current interest is to continue into the medical field following undergraduate, and pursue his goal of becoming an oncologist. </p> <p>In the process of completing his fourth Co-op, Roland's first Co-op was in the spring of 2014 was as a quality control intern for Chroma Technology Inc. in Bellows Falls, VT. While there, worked in a team dynamic and was able to gain experience using spectrophotometric equipment in the inspection of optical filters. Working independently and in teams, he was able to learn various qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques, as well as assist in research and development projects to improve efficiency of process. In the winter of 2015, Roland worked for Dr. Abi Katz, an Antioch alum and palliative physician, in the Post-Acute Care Continuum of the Kettering Health Network. This was his first experience working in a hospital, although most of the work was spent in the administrative aspect of healthcare. He was able to learn about the establishment of advance illness management procedures and palliative medicine.  His main contribution was in a project centered around reducing the number of medication related errors within the Kettering Medical Center. Ultimately this took the form of a medication review process flow that outlined various steps to reduce the possibility of error. In addition, he was able to create a series of learning materials for those just learning to use the medication input and review system. Much of this work involved research and review of literature and obtaining the feedback of physicians, pharmacists, and nurses during interviews. For his third Co-op, Roland traveled to the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel. Working as a volunteer research assistant, he and two other Antioch students were able to learn from Dr. Jeffrey Goldstein, a radiation oncologist and Antioch Alum. The three students were able to gather data on the location and size of internal mammary chain lymph nodes in breast cancer patients, as well as complete a scientific paper that is currently under review. Each student was able to communicate effectively and bring their own skill sets to produce the final paper. </p> <p>Currently, Roland has returned to work for Dr. Katz as a clinical intern for Fidelity Health Care, working within an advance illness management program. He has aided in literature review for transitional care methods for reducing patient readmissions to the hospital, and is also working to establish a care guide copilot that will allow him to work one-on-one with patients and help to identify barriers in their treatment and establish goals to help empower them. </p> <p>Additionally, he has also serve as a tutor for various science courses at Antioch, aiding in the learning of other students and supporting their growth in the subjects. Through tutoring, he has also been able to develop skills in instructing course materials and developing interpersonal skills that promote positive information exchange. He has tutored:</p> <p>CHEM105/160: General Chemistry I&II</p> <p>BIO105/160: General Biology I&II</p> <p>Math160: Calculus II</p> <p>BIO215: Cellular & Molecular Biology</p>

Biomed, Public Health, & Health Advocacy (Pre-Medical & Pre-Health), Ohio
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Biomed, Public Health, & Health Advocacy (Pre-Medical & Pre-Health)
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Biomed, Public Health, & Health Advocacy (Pre-Medical & Pre-Health), Ohio
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New England, Technology, Energy & Systems Design
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SKILLS & INTERESTS

My Work

Accomplishments

Gallery I

Gallery II


 

Post-Acute Care Continuum: Scaife ’17 at Kettering Health Network in Dayton, Ohio

Mar 23, 2017
 

This winter I was given the opportunity to perform a general internship for the Kettering Health Network in the Advanced Care Department. The Kettering Health Network (KHN) is a non-profit network of eight hospitals, nine emergency departments, and over 120 outpatient facilities throughout Southwest Ohio, all of whom follow the mission to improve the quality of life of the people in the communities they serve through health care and education. The network does this by offering patients advance cancer fighting technology, high qualities for maternity care, brain and spinal surgery, and leading Ohio in cardiac care. Kettering strives for excellence and ensuring patients are given the best experience possible, following the key values of being Trustworthy, Innovative, Caring, Competent, and Collaborative; encouraging all patients to choose “K for Life,” but you can learn more at https://www.ketteringhealth.org/. KHN works directly with the public to promote better health practices, provide outpatient support, and encourage a healthier community through increasing public awareness, health screenings, and patient centered care.

My role in the network is as a general intern working for Dr. Abi Katz D.O., an Antioch Alumni from the class of ’86. Dr. Katz is the Director of Operations of the Post-Acute Care Continuum. She is a doctor specializing in palliative medicine, the medical practice of relieving symptoms, pains, and stresses of serious and chronic illness. I work with her directly by researching, attending meetings, taking notes, creating PowerPoints and spreadsheets, and working on various projects. The project that I have spent a majority of the last two months working on is the Medication Reconciliation Project, which has allowed me to meet with various physicians, nurses, and pharmacists throughout the Kettering Medical Center, the hospital where I primarily work. Medication Reconciliation (med recon for short) is the process of reviewing a patient’s medications and reconciling any possible errors, like duplications, dosage and frequency errors, and potential adverse drug interactions (for a little more information, visit https://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=414912). The intention of this project is to identify areas within the med recon process that could be improved and disseminating this information in the hopes that it will lead to a reduction of these events. I am currently working on a series of work flows that may be used in the future as educational materials for physicians learning med recon.

It is difficult to describe my daily experience, mainly because each day was generally different from the last. My day usually consisted of any combination of the following: researching various topics of information that relates to one of the projects or is something Dr. Katz needs for a reference, creating PowerPoints and Excel spreadsheets to record information and data, meeting with individuals for information on projects, attending larger meetings and taking notes, creating or modifing flow charts that outline systems within the network, transcribing physical information into a digital format, communicating with various members of the network through emails, driving to various locations for meetings, reading articles for information, and meeting with Dr. Katz periodically. Another aspect of my internship has been learning through online modules from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, which have been instructing me on a number of topics that relate to establishing quality improvement projects, ensuring patient safety and centeredness, and leadership skills. After completing all sixteen modules, I was recently able to earn the IHI Open School Certificate of Completion- Basic Level. If you would like to look and take any course, all you need to do is register at https://app.ihi.org/lms/home.aspx.

I am currently a Biomedical Science major, and this Co-op has given me a great opportunity to explore the administrative side of medicine, as well as allowed me to learn of the complexity of the healthcare system. Working in the Advanced Care Department, I have been able to assist in the development of projects and reference materials that will help Dr. Katz as she continues her efforts in improving the quality of patient care for the Kettering Health Network.

Photo credit: Kettering Health Network – https://ketteringhealth.org/mediaroom/articles/index.cfm?x=316#storytop


 

Research Assistant: Scaife ’17 at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel HaShomer, Israel

Dec 11, 2016
 

For my third co-op as a biomed major at Antioch, I volunteered as a research assistant for Dr. Jeffrey Goldstein at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel HaShomer, Israel. Sheba Medical Center is the largest hospital in Israel, and one of the largest in the Middle East. Its mission is to provide excellent, comprehensive care to patients without discrimination, and to promote medical research, funding and education on national and global levels. I was focused specifically on research in the department of radiation oncology.

Radiation oncology is a subfield of oncology that focuses on the use of radiation in the treatment of cancer patients. Dr. Goldstein is a practicing physician whose research is on motion-management through the use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). The intention is to improve scans and increase the effectiveness of treatments by minimizing errors that can occur from the natural movements of basic physiological functions like breathing.

CPAP has been used widely as a treatment for sleep apnea. It prevents the collapse of the airways during sleep by maintaining a continuous pressure that forces the airways open. Although Dr. Goldstein’s initial research on CPAP’s effect on lung volume has been released, there is still significant research necessary to determine CPAP’s total effect on a patient’s body during scans and treatment. Dr. Goldstein posits that using a CPAP machine will reduce breathing movement and prevent errors in scans, which will allow more accurate treatment.

At Sheba Medical Center, I worked with two other Antioch College students, Meridian Howes ‘17 and Tess Haskin ‘17—also research assistants for Dr. Goldstein’s CPAP project. We have done things like measuring the volume of the heart, as well as other research projects in the fields of radiation oncology and nuclear medicine.  For example, we collected data on the internal mammary lymph nodes, which are a chain of lymph nodes that follow the sternum. Our project looked specifically at these nodes in locally advanced breast cancer patients because there is a chance that they can become cancerous due to uptake from the breasts. Using positron emission tomography—computer tomography (PET–CT) scans, we were able to examine more than a hundred patients for possible presence.

Our typical day started around 8:30 a.m. We arrived at the hospital and worked on anything left from the day before, or anything that Dr. Goldstein sent to us after hours. At around 9:30 a.m. we usually took a trip to the coffee and cake cart to indulge in caffeine and carbs—essential for any research assistant.

Dr. Goldstein was generally in around 10 a.m., which is when we debriefed him. Promptly at noon, we would ask to go to lunch, though we were sometimes delayed if there was something that we needed to do immediately. The remainder of the day was spent reviewing patients’ information, reading literature, writing and formatting the paper and visiting the coffee and cake cart. We also interacted with various people in the department, mainly so that they could check our work and translate information from Hebrew. 

Overall, this has been a cool experience, and has given us the opportunity to do research that is applicable and has the potential to be published in the Red Journal, the official journal for the Society of the American Radiation Oncology. It’s the top journal in the field.


 

Clinical Intern in Advance Care Management: Scaife ’17 at Fidelity Health Care in Dayton, Ohio

Dec 11, 2016
 

For my fourth and final cooperative education experience, I was given the opportunity to work with Fidelity Health Care, a home health care service located in the Dayton area. Once again, I was able to work with Dr. Abi Katz, a palliative physician and the medical director of the Advanced Illness Management (AIM) program.

The AIM program is built around a model of care focusing on the palliative care of patients with chronic illnesses who are referred to the service through the Premier Health Care hospitals. Palliative care focuses on treating the symptoms that patients with advanced and chronic illnesses face with the goal of improving a patient and their family’s qualities of life. Through the work of nurses, social workers, a visiting physician, and health coaches, the AIM program provides home services and support in an attempt to address patient concerns, promote patient involvement in treatment, provide some relief for patients from their conditions, and help identify and reduce the potential barriers and stresses that the patient and their family may face. This is done through the six pillars of care, which are identifying symptom red flags, using medication reconciliation to avoid adverse events, providing advance care directives to make the patient’s voice heard at the end of life, performing follow-ups with physicians, providing a personal health record so that patients are well aware of their current condition and can communicate their story in an emergency, and addressing a patient’s spirituality. Each person is unique and their progression through the pillars will never be the same.

My role in the AIM program has me working within the office and in patients’ homes. I have been focused on data collection, entry, and analysis, as well as contributing to and constructing spreadsheets. Also, I have worked on a literature review for research surrounding palliative and advanced care. One specific project was to construct a table of recommended physician follow-up times for patients leaving the hospital. The goal was to determine if certain timelines lead to a reduction in readmission rates to the hospital within thirty days of discharge. Additionally, I have been producing metrics for Dr. Katz’s patient log and working on the admission/discharge measures for the AIM program.

Outside of the administrative work, I have become an active member of the team providing care for patients, acting as their care guide. A care guide is someone who meets with patients and helps to identify the barriers to their health and promote the establishment of goals. This a unique opportunity for me as it allows me to talk one-on-one with patients and help them with psycho-social issues that may be affecting the patient’s quality of life beyond just their medical needs. This was particularly nerve-racking as I was uncertain of my ability to develop this type of rapport with patients but as I meet with them more it is becoming more comfortable. With my co-op being almost half over I look forward to meeting more patients and learning their stories.

In addition to my work at Fidelity, I am also working as an on-call simulated patient for the Boonshoft School of Medicine. For this work, I actually act as the patient and help in the training of medical students as they try to build a rapport with me and figure out what ailment I may have. This has given me a new perspective on healthcare as I am now the patient and I can learn the skills that are needed to be an effective physician. I never thought I would have 53 doctors-to-be meeting with me and performing physical exams on me over the span of 22 hours in only 2 days, but I hope I have the opportunity to work more with these students in the future so that we can build their skills before they go on as real doctors.

Photo credit: https://www.premierhealth.com


 

Quality Control: Scaife ’17 at Chroma Technology Corp in Rockingham, Vermont

Feb 09, 2016
 

I am a Quality Control Intern at Chroma Technology in Bellows Falls, Vermont. Chroma is an employee-owned company that manufactures glass filters that are shipped all over the world to be used in various forms, such as in microscopic and telescopic research, allowing researchers to use the filters to distinguish regions in their observations. Chroma offers a variety of filters, and promises the customer that as long as they understand the science behind the product that it will meet expectations or their money back. With this integrity in their products, Chroma ensures customers that the filters will be of the best quality. As an employee owned company, Chroma employees all work for each other, allowing everyone to have some power in the company. Chroma also has a part in the Vermont and New Hampshire communities through promotion of fund raisers, employee participation in events, employment outreach, and environment support through efficiency and awareness. More information can be found on Chroma and the multiple aspects of the company at https://www.chroma.com/.

As a quality control intern, I examine filters using spectrophotometric equipment to find transmission and optical density to determine wavelength, bandwidth, and band passes. This quantitative data collection allows for the products to be within specification. This allows me to work firsthand in a scientific environment since I utilize data collection and record keeping of information gathering during the filter tests. My job also uses qualitative data by cosmetically inspecting the filters for stains, scratches, digs, spatter, fractures, and pinholes. During the work day I am able to work independently on jobs, scanning and inspecting filters, but I also have coworkers that are more than willing to assist me when I am unsure of what should be done when an error occurs. I also work on side projects that go beyond the usual quality control. I am learning about root cause failure, which investigates where the defects are occurring during the manufacturing process. This is done by observing and taking notes of how parts are handled and the various steps, watching for occurrences that may lead to damage. The point of this is to determine if there is a point in the manufacturing process that may be the root of common defects that plague some products. Another project that I am working is that creation of a product defect catalog that contains the recorded defects from parts that were rejected at Chroma, and will eventually include parts sent back from customers. This project has required hours of cleaning and looking at filters with a microscope and high intensity lights.

Chroma has also been gracious enough to have more than one Antioch student intern, allowing Keenan and I to have our own unique positions, although for some projects we work together. One of the company’s founders, Paul Millman, is an Antioch alum who is very supportive in our learning at Chroma and has invited us to attend conferences in order to learn more about employee ownership and scientific research that is being done with light filter. I think that this Co-op position is great.