2015 MODALE FELLOWSHIP REPORT Asha Mathew Solomon Associate Professor, BSN, MSN College of Nursing, CMC, Vellore The main objective of the Modale Fellowship is to provide an avenue for faculty at Christian Medical College, Vellore to participate in collaborative research with mentors at the Kansas University of Medical Center (KUMC). I feel privileged to have been chosen as one of the two Modale Fellows for the year 2015. It was new to me to have designated time for research and therefore I was determined to glean as much as possible from my four-month stay in Kansas. My research interest was in postoperative pain assessment and management, and low back pain among healthcare professionals. My entire Fellowship period was mentored by Dr. Neena Sharma, Director of Clinical Orthopedic Rehabilitation Research Laboratory and Assistant Professor at School of Health Professions, KUMC. Due to her vast experience with low back pain research and grant applications, working with her immensely furthered my understanding about grant writing, research designs and newer statistical approaches. I was able to participate actively in four different research projects over these months:
My primary research project was to assess prevalence of low back pain and musculoskeletal problems and their association with physical activity among undergraduate and graduate students (nursing, physiotherapy and engineering) at KU. I worked on this throughout my Fellowship, from writing up the research proposal to data analysis. Among the “firsts” during this project was the use of an online portal, REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture), for data collection.
I contributed to the resubmission of an NIH-RO3 grant for a retrospective study to assess the effects of opioid doses in the first 24 hours on pain, delirium and physical function among older adults undergoing spine surgery. This rewarding experience included addressing reviewers’ concerns in the proposal, creating a conceptual framework for aims and hypotheses, conducting a pilot study to corroborate the use of hospital database, delving into propensity score matching and attending conference calls with colleagues from the Weill Cornell Medical College in NY.
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I was involved in a prospective study that aimed to determine the pain, sleep and activity level with an activity tracker among patients undergoing spine surgery.
I assisted with data
collection instruments, activity tracker- related preparation and patient recruitment. 
Finally, I assisted in a study that looked at the prevalence of spine surgeries among older adults since 2007, using the HERON* database of KUMC. This arose from our observation that there was very limited information on prevalence of spine surgeries among older adults after 2007.
Since this was my first trip to the U.S., the Modale Fellowship provided me with incredible opportunities to observe the American healthcare system in general, provision of patient care, classroom teaching climate and inter-professional collaborations in the light of cultural perspectives. Although I missed the warmth and joy of having family around I was enriched by new friendships and dynamic solitude. I was happy to be able to visit CMC nursing alumni in Houston, Missouri and Toronto and share our stories of growth, strength and resolve. I am grateful to Dr. Mani M. Mani and Mrs. Rebekah Mani for their passionate supportive of global health education and for being great examples of kindness, care and love. I took home beautiful memories, renewed purpose and a stronger belief that the God who started His work in me will bring it to completion. *KUMC has a proprietary integrated data repository called HERON, based on the NIH-funded i2b2 platform.