Project: Use of Medication Score and Seizure Score in Ketogenic Therapy

I have been on the KetoGator team for a year. I am currently ketobuddy to 4 patients who I called throughout the week to get progress updates and collect information. My additional responsibilities include personnel and interview officer. As personnel officer, we are in the process of contacting old members to create a “Where are they now” portion on our website. We are also responsible for tracking both old and new members. As interview officer, I am responsible for sending out list servs, holding meet and greets, scheduling interviews and preparing applicant packets. The project I am working on involves examining Seizure score and Medication score to determine the efficacy of the Ketogenic diet. We are currently in the process of entering all our AED medication retrospective data before we can begin a thorough analysis.

Other Roles: Personnel Officer, Interview Officer, Drug Database and KetoCarn

Semester Joined: Summer 2007

Major: Dietetics

Future Plans: Medical school

Project: Advanced Ketogenic Therapy Education for Caregivers

As a member of the KetoGator team, I am responsible for data collection and entry of our patients and I will soon be responsible for a new initiate. I am also responsible for education material for caregivers during pre-initiation education, and as an archiving officer, I also help to archive previous patient folders. My current project involves improving education for caregivers.

Other Roles: KetoCarn, Education and Archive Officer

Semester Joined: Fall 2007

Major: Nutritional Sciences

Future Plans: Graduate School/Law School

Project: Online Tools for Administration of Ketogenic Therapy

I am a co-captain for the KetoGator team as well as a KetoBuddy to 3 patients. As a member of the KetoGator team, I am also proudly apart of a support system for all of our patients. I attend clinic every Tuesday and help keep track of seizure data, anthropometrics, diet prescription, and labs, as well as enter these data into a database to be analyzed. I am also apart of several subgroups within our team to help constantly improve patient care. Within these groups I am responsible for helping to give presentations to new patients on the Ketogenic Therapy, working with other website officers to improve and update the website, working with other members to develop seizure and med scores, and updating the food database. As a personal project, I am in the process of developing and putting into place a seizure score to thoroughly evaluate our patient’s progress as well as looking at the effects of diet ratio on seizure score.

Other Roles: Co-Captain, Website Officer, Hardware/Software Officer, PI, KetoCarn, Manuscript Group, and Food Database

Semester Joined: Fall 2007

Major: Psychology

Future Plans: Nursing School- NP

Project: TBA

As the newest member of the KetoGator team, I am currently in the training and learning process. I have completed reading much of the introductory material and am now beginning to work on actual team tasks. In addition to attending the weekly KetoCarn meetings, I have started to archive past patient information, update the food database, and also audit the documents of my fellow team members. Recently I have been trained to audit the prospective med score data and am excited to be a help to the Med and Seizure Score group. I am thrilled of the prospect of becoming a Ketobuddy and hope to do so in the near future.

Other Roles: KetoCarn and Food Database

Semester Joined: Fall 2008

Major: Engineering

Future Plans: Medical School

Project: Relationship of Seizure Score to Diet Prescription

Currently I am a KetoBuddy to 1 patient. I make weekly phone calls to check on the families and ensure my patients are following the diet. This communication is vital to ensuring the diet’s success – the more comfortable a family is with the process, the more likely they are to comply. Aside from maintaining constant patient contact, I work with the drug database for the team and the patient families. This database contains hundreds of common medications, from Cold and Allergy to Antibiotics, and their carbohydrate content. Because our patients need to limit their carbohydrate intake, it is important to know how many carbs are in everything they consume. I plan to use this information in the drug database to help investigate the effect of non-dietary sources of carbohydrates (such as medications) and their role in seizure control.

Other Roles: Hardware/Software Officer, Interview Officer, and Newsletter

Semester Joined: Fall 2007

Major: Microbiology and Cell Science

Future Plans: Medical School

Project: TBA

I am a sophomore holding high esteem in being a member of the KetoGator team in the InvestiGators Research Honor Society because it gives me the exciting opportunity to work alongside other bright undergraduate students who demonstrate an exceptional level of professionalism and commitment in their striving to gain insight about the mechanisms of Ketogenic Therapy. I am currently Ketobuddy to one patient, but will eventually be Ketobuddy to multiple patients as further experience is acquired. I look forward to having a personal project established in the very near future.

Other Roles: Treasurer and Manuscript

Semester Joined: Summer B 2008

Major: Biochemistry

Future Plans: Medical School

Project: Development of Seizure Score for Use in Ketogenic Therapy

My job as KetoBuddy to three pediatric epileptic patients involves serving as a liaison between the medical staff and patient family. My tasks involve keeping in touch with the patient, tracking and analyzing the patient’s progress on the Ketogenic Therapy, creating new meals for the patients, and supporting the family with administering the therapy. I track my patient’s seizure activity, daily urinary ketone levels, anthropometrics, and diet prescription. I am the editor of the newsletter, which is sent out quarterly throughout the year. The upcoming KetoGator Connection newsletter issue will be in November. The volumes of newsletters are now posted on the website. As interview officer, I am responsible for checking the email and processing applications for the next interview session. For the Investigators, I am an IG performance officer to track the members weekly hours and attendance. I report each members hours and meeting attendance to the team captains and Dr. Borum. I am also a member of KetoCarn, a group composed of Ketogators and Carnitine members that focuses on the scientific aspect of the therapy. In KetoCarn, I am in the Seizure/Med Score baby group. I am working on generating an idea for my personal project.

Other Roles: Interview Officer, Newsletter, and IG Attendance

Semester Joined: Fall 2007

Major: Microbiology & Cell Science

Future Plans: Medical School

Project: TBA

Currently, I am working on updating the Ketogenic Therapy section of the website to make it more family friendly and to include a recipe database and helpful hints and tricks for the diet. I am KetoBuddy to two patients, which involves making frequent phone calls to them, tracking their progress on the Ketogenic Therapy, and offering support throughout their time on the diet. As an Education member, I inform our patients on the ins and outs of the Ketogenic Therapy before they are initiated on the diet. We are working to create and audit patient meals. I am currently working on making meals for Meal Day and developing a recipe database. I am also a Website officer.

Other Roles: KetoCarn, Education, Food Database, and Website Officer

Semester Joined: Spring 2008

Major: Biochemistry

Future Plans: Medical School

Project: Role of Protein and Carbohydrate in Ketogenic Therapy

Currently as a ketogator, I am the support system and ketobuddy to three patients.  I keep constant contact with them via weekly phone calls, and see them when they come into clinic.  My daily tasks include entering data from my patients, assessing their growth, diet, and overall progress on our therapy.  I also assist my fellow ketogators by auditing their data entry and helping out in anyway I can.  I am leader of the joint group, KetoCarn, where we present weekly journal articles about our findings and interests concerning the Ketogenic Therapy and Carnitine.  I am also responsible for the food database. In this group we collect data on several hundreds of food products that our patients may be on and provide a resource for our staff and parents to go to when making meals or looking for alternative foods. I recently started my project about the inter-relationships of ketogenesis, caloric intake and growth.  In order to track our patients, I update the evaluation of their diet prescription to see how it compares to the DRI requirements.  I am analyzing prospective data to see how their prescribed calories compare to DRI requirements and how to create a plan of growth for their individual needs.

Other Roles: KetoCarn leader, Food Database, IRB Officer, and KetoCarn Therapy group-diet analysis

Semester Joined: Fall 2007

Major: Biochemistry and Nutritional Sciences

Future Plans: Medical school

Project: Ketogenic Therapy Introductory Education for Caregivers and for Health Care Professionals

My name is Huma Razzaq and I have been a member of the Ketogator team for almost two years. As a member of the Ketogator team I am responsible for maintaining contact and monitoring the progress of patients on the Ketogenic Therapy program at Shands. I do this by preparing clinic documents for my patients, attending weekly chart rounds, entering patient information into a database, and calling patients on a weekly basis. In addition to this, I am responsible for Pre-Initiation/Initiation education, clinic bag preparation, food database, and training. I am also part of the Ketocarn group in which we discuss the science behind the diet in conjunction with members from the Carnitine team. I really enjoy being a member of this team because it gives me the opportunity to gain insight into a unique therapy while working with dedicated professionals towards the common goal of improving patient care. I am working on my thesis titled Role of Translational Research in Ketogenic Therapy. This thesis will explain the importance of translational research and the methods needed in order to aid caregivers and clinicians in its implementation. Right now I am working on reading articles and learning more about translational research so that I can from the introduction for my thesis.

Other Roles: Food Database, Biohazard Officer, IRB Officer, Ketocarn, and Thesis

Semester Joined: Summer 2006

Major: Microbiology and Cell Science

Future Plans: Medical School

Project: TBA

I am currently KetoBuddy to 1 patient. I have been communicating with his parents every week and working on meals for him. I just finished Educating a new patient about the Ketogenic Therapy and everything it involves. I am still learning a few things here and there from the team, but my training is complete. I recently had a chance to see a patient at clinic and it was a great experience. I look forward to working on my project and possibly getting another patient in the future.

Other Roles: Personnel Officer, Education, and Newsletter

Semester Joined: Summer A 2008

Major: Microbiology and Cell Science

Future Plans: Medical School

Project: Ketogenic Therapy and Supplements

I joined InvestiGators Summer 2008 and I am currently a junior majoring in Agricultural & Biological Engineering. As a member of InvestiGators, I am ketobuddy to one patient, to which I over see his well being while on the ketogenic diet.  I am also part of the food database team, ketocarn, and a HIPAA officer. On a weekly basis I update our population database to keep track of data entry and auditing process for all our patients. On the side, I am working on a thesis project to see which supplements would be most beneficial in our patient’s development.

Other Roles: Food Database, KetoCarn-Therapy, Thesis, Population Database, and HIPAA Officer

Semester Joined: Summer A 2008

Major: Agricultural and Biological Engineering

Future Plans: Medical School

Project: Use of AEDs as a Measure of Efficacy in Epileptic Patients on Ketogenic Therapy

As a co-captain of the KetoGator team, I am KetoBuddy to three patients. For these three patients, I present their medical history to the team at our Thursday chart rounds. After compiling data from their clinic visits such as lab values, anthropometrics, seizure data, Gastrointestinal issues, ketones and specific gravity, diet prescription, and medications, I create a Comprehensive Epilepsy Form with graphs to track their progress on the Ketogenic Therapy. In addition, I keep in contact with my patients’ families through phone calls between their clinic visits, trying my best to help with any concerns or questions they might have. In addition to my patient responsibilities, I am involved in several groups such as KetoCarn and Thesis. In KetoCarn, I learn more about the scientific research aspect of the Ketogenic Therapy by reading and discussing articles. I am also working on a thesis project that involves looking at the anti-epileptic medication score and ketogenic therapy and their effects on several factors, such as growth and seizures. I also spend a lot of time entering in data for the prospective and retrospective database.

Other Roles: KetoCarn, Thesis, Education, HIPPA Officer, and Team Co-Captain

Semester Joined: Spring 2006

Major: Integrative Biology

Future Plans: Medical School

Project: KetoGator Ratio: Role of Carbohydrate through the use of the Glycemic Effect

As a member of the KetoGator team, I am a KetoBuddy to three patients whom I keep in contact with through emails, phone calls, and clinic visits. One of my main roles is to care for and support my patients who are on Ketogenic Therapy by gathering data about seizures, diet prescriptions, and medications. The data I receive is inputted into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and analyzed; and in order to track their progress on the therapy, I create assessments about their progress and present them to Dr. Borum and the team during weekly team meetings. In addition to my KetoBuddy responsibilities, I am an Archiving officer, in which one of my tasks is to organize and archive patient information periodically to keep patient care efficient. As a member of the KetoCarn Therapy Components group, I work with fellow members in organizing and analyzing diet recalls we receive from our patients to be used to better assess the therapy.

Other Roles: Co-Captain, Archiving Officer, KetoCarn-Therapy Components, and Thesis

Semester Joined: Summer 2007

Major: Microbiology and Cell Science

Future Plans: Medical School