How do the latest technologies impact epidemiology, clinical research, and public health? What kind of progress has there been in collaboration, open data, and citizen science? And in what ways can digital health appropriately supplement healthcare with the human touch? We will get the answers to these questions and more in this episode with Christine Ballard, a professionally trained epidemiologist specializing in clinical research and a Research Advocate at Oracle for Research. Christine has her Master of Public Health and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in pharmacoepidemiology at UNC Chapel Hill. Her vast experience includes stints as an assistant professor and clinical research roles at Wake Forest Baptist Health, the University of Rochester Medical Center, and the New York State Department of Public Health. You can learn more about Oracle for Research here: http://www.oracle.com/research

 

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Episode Transcript:

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;24;21

What challenges do epidemiology researchers face in getting solutions to the public? What kind of progress has there been in collaboration, open data and citizen science? And in what ways can digital health appropriately supplement health care with the human touch? We'll get the answers to these questions and more on this episode of Research in Action, brought to you by Oracle for Research.

 

00;00;24;23 - 00;00;57;18

Hello. Welcome back to another episode of Research in Action, brought to you by Oracle for Research. I'm Mike Stiles, and today we have Christine Ballard with us. Christine is a professionally trained epidemiologist, specialized in clinical research. She has her master of public health and is working on her Ph.D. and pharmacoepidemiology at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her rather vast background includes stints as an assistant professor and clinical research roles at Wake Forest Baptist Health, University of Rochester Medical Center, and the New York State Department of Public Health.

 

00;00;57;20 - 00;01;26;08

She's currently a research advocate at Oracle for Research. And we're going to learn what those research advocates do and get into a lot more. Thanks for being with us, Christine. Thank you so much, Mike. I can't wait to dive into this. Oh, yeah. I'm looking forward to it as well. And I am going to ping you with questions about clinical research, epidemiology, pharmacoepidemiology as I keep tripping over that word, probably where is what kind of shape health care is in.

 

00;01;26;09 - 00;01;48;12

We're going to talk about that and some other stuff. But first, what got you as a person interested in this line of work? Kind of give us a little history lesson on Christine. You know, growing up, I lived in rural upstate New York, so I lived right outside of Rochester, right up on Lake Ontario, in a really small town of Albion, New York.

 

00;01;48;14 - 00;02;17;09

And, you know, there really wasn't a lot there in terms of researchers and health care access, to be quite frank. And, you know, I was diagnosed with type one diabetes at a really young age. I was diagnosed at eight and it I had a couple options When I got diagnosed, I could either face it head on or I could kind of sorrow in getting diagnosed and, you know, kind of letting it take over my life.

 

00;02;17;09 - 00;03;05;17

And I chose truly to jump two feet in. And I was so interested in being kind of up to date with all of the newest, latest, greatest technology and research updates. And I would find myself as a young kid trying to Google once Google became available, what certain words meant and really kind of educating myself about it. But quickly, growing up in a small town, not having that research access and really not having access to health care providers that even necessarily were familiar with that technology, my parents got me connected with the University of Rochester, and that's where I had a lot of my care growing up.

 

00;03;05;20 - 00;03;34;21

And really got to to learn and grow as as a kid alongside some of the brightest scientists in the field and it truly inspired where I wanted to go and was so excited when I entered college at the University of Rochester and really getting to work more hands on than you would as an eight year old kid and really just fell in love with the field.

 

00;03;34;21 - 00;04;06;24

And so I didn't know what epidemiology was even entering college and quickly kind of figured it out. During my studies. You know, like a lot of kids at the University of Rochester, you kind of go in premed, everyone's going to med school. And unfortunately I got rejected many times. And so when I got my MPH, I really fell in love with that and really getting the opportunity to dive into AP research.

 

00;04;06;24 - 00;04;59;01

And I did a little bit of that at the New York State Department of Health, but really got to spread my wings at the University of Rochester in the Department of Neurosurgery, really exploring health outcomes for patients and really understanding how do we make patients first in research and it kind of set me on this journey. So this past year, I got accepted into UMC Chapel Hill's PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGY program, where I get the opportunity to start to understand how pharmacy or pharmacology so all of the treatments that patients are receiving impact their care in certainly looking for ways to continue to always drive patient care and continuing to accelerate new discoveries.

 

00;04;59;03 - 00;05;23;28

And I absolutely love it and love that. Oracle's giving me the opportunity to do both things, work full time, and also be a full time PhD student. Yeah, I think that's kind of common. I've known several friends from high school who, you know, their path into medicine was a result of something that they experienced themselves, whether it was getting put back together after a car wreck or a disease that they have.

 

00;05;24;01 - 00;05;50;24

How does your personal health journey with Type one diabetes influence the way you approach research and your job at Oracle now? Because it is kind of a different lens than someone who's just coming at it. Purely academic, purely scientific. Yeah, I think I kind of have to wear both hats to be totally honest, but I think the way that I approach clinical research is really with patients in mind.

 

00;05;50;29 - 00;06;32;17

Patients have so much knowledge and experience that they can kind of engage in that research process and really understanding how to combine the patient perspective with the traditional research perspective has really been super rewarding and really engaging and allows me to bring my experience as a patient and certainly as a patient advocate forward. And now with Oracle get diving headfirst into the health care space, it really allows me to kind of bring a bit of that perspective to our researchers as well.

 

00;06;32;19 - 00;07;05;27

And always talking about the new discoveries that they're doing. But how can we relate it back to improving patient care and accelerating discoveries, understanding really how digital health can also revolutionize the way that we've been doing that versus I was that kid that would always bring Excel sheets to doctor's appointments. But I think, you know, I think digital health really is the opportunity to combine new technologies with accelerating the way that we're doing research, which I'm really excited about.

 

00;07;06;04 - 00;07;30;22

Well, you were talking about how when you were younger, you were making yourself an expert in your condition and probably, you know, seeking answers rather aggressively. Were you happy with the degree to which you were being listened to or did you just keep running up against a brick wall? MM That's a really good question. I have to say I was so lucky as a kid.

 

00;07;30;26 - 00;08;05;09

My physician was or I should say my nurse practitioner was a type one diabetic herself, which honestly gave me a completely new perspective on life and on the trajectory of the disease. To have somebody who's treating your condition, who is super busy as all of our advanced care practitioners and our MDs are so busy all the time, to see her living a life like that truly impacted where I wanted to go.

 

00;08;05;13 - 00;08;41;06

Going forward, I will say there were times where I felt like it would not just with my diabetes care, but, you know, with health care in general where you're experiencing something or feeling something and you're like, just listen. And I think that's really where