Clinical Research Coordinator, Children’s National Medical System

My name is Jibreel Oliver, and I'm a clinical research coordinator at the Children's National Health System. So the mission statement of the coordinator is to make sure that every family that comes into the specific clinic I work in, which is the IMPACT DC Asthma Clinic, gets every need that they have met. So, if they need medication, I make sure that they get that as soon as possible. If they're having issues with their insurance, then we make sure that we can handle that accordingly with their case managers or talk directly to the insurance company. We also make sure that clinic runs smoothly. So making sure that all the asthma educators know where they have to be and when they have to speak to the clinicians. So we teach families about what may have caused their child to become sick in the first place. We know that they have asthma. But we just have to figure what triggers their asthma so let's says there are some things in their house like mold or mice. Those two things trigger asthma very strongly. So trying to figure out ways to get rid of those things or mitigate the risks of those triggers. Mondays are usually my administrative day. So I do a lot of my follow up calls with my families on Mondays. I call them about two weeks after their asthma clinic appointment and see how they're doing, if they received their medication, whether they understand what the medication is supposed to be doing and when they should take it. And then Tuesday through Friday I'm in clinic. So I'm either managing clinic flow or I'm working as an asthma educator to meet with families. Typically, I'll see about four or five families in a shift. Our appointments are about 90 minutes. And a lot of what I do is just figure out what is the biggest barrier to care for these children and their parents. And then try to get those risks out of the way. Right now, we're working on a grant to try to figure out what the community would like when it comes to resources, specifically for their children. We're holding focus groups to figure out exactly what are the biggest barriers to care for parents with asthma. In general, our clinic has a research branch that I'm not heavily involved with but we're trying to figure out what the root cause of asthma could be. We have genetic components. We have environmental components. And then we have epigenetic components which is things that, like stress. If you are very stressed, could that trigger asthma or asthmatic symptoms, so. It's very interesting. But right now, I'm running logistical support for the focus groups and transcribing all of the information.