Her lifelong goal of becoming a doctor changed after a trip to Peru
By Lucien Chauvin, American Heart Association 线上电子游戏飞禽走兽
Life changed for María帕特里齐亚·桑托斯 during a visit to Peru in 2017. 它不是来自安第斯山脉马丘比丘的神秘经历，也不是来自南美国家许多其他古代遗址之一, 而是来自对南部城市阿雷基帕150多名儿童贫血症护理人员的采访.
María帕特里齐亚在她的祖国委内瑞拉长大，计划成为一名医生. 她从秘鲁回到新奥尔良的杜兰大学，带着一个完全不同的想法.
“当我在秘鲁时，我爱上了做研究的过程，”她说. María Patrizia added a public health major. "My adviser 说 it was crazy, but I did it." She graduated with bachelor's degrees in neuroscience and public health. "After the trip to Peru, I knew I wanted to do public health."
A second working trip to Peru in 2019 cemented her career choice. 这一次, it was to study food insecurity and health in Villa El Salvador, a poor district in the capital city of Lima.
While she's no longer on track to become a medical doctor, María Patrizia继续追随她一生的热情，当她的家人搬到美国和瑞士，然后回到委内瑞拉时，她的热情并没有改变.
她说:“对我来说，健康是生活中一切事情的基础。. “我在委内瑞拉长大, 我看到了很多差异, and I thought that the most impactful, foundational way to address them was through health."
María Patrizia applied to several universities in the U.S., but Tulane was her top choice. 她完成了本科学业，然后获得了生物统计学硕士学位. 她现在是杜兰大学公共卫生和热带医学学院流行病学博士研究生的第三年. She is the only Latina among 16 students in the program.
"María Patrizia has always been an excellent student, very dedicated to what she wanted to do,她的父亲说, 何塞·拉斐尔·桑托斯, 说. "She wanted to be a doctor, and Tulane has one of the best pre-med programs. But we supported her when she switched because we knew she would excel."
Dr. M. Pia查, 他是华盛顿大学公共卫生学院的助理教授，他聘请María Patrizia在秘鲁开展一个项目, 她说，她不仅是一名熟练的研究人员，而且在现实生活中也反应迅速.
“有一天，我陪同她(María Patrizia)和她的秘鲁同行去收集数据, she showed me her 'tactic' to keep the dogs away. She had a water bottle ready in case she needed to spray any approaching dogs. It was pretty effective," 说 Chaparro, who María Patrizia calls a mentor.
María Patrizia divides her time between different academic tasks these days. She teaches observational epidemiology at Tulane, while also taking a class on clustered and longitudinal data analysis.
她的大部分线上电子游戏飞禽走兽, 然而, is spent on research for her dissertation, 哪一个关注的是住院期间的急性高血糖和心血管疾病的潜在风险.
急性高血糖症发生在没有糖尿病的人频繁出现高血糖的时候, 或葡萄糖.
一旦患者出院，血糖水平恢复正常，医院通常不会对病情进行随访, María帕特里齐亚说. 但她说，她的研究表明，患心血管疾病的风险可能会增加, diabetes and other conditions.
使用来自大规模国家COVID队列协作的电子健康记录, she has narrowed her scope to around 8 million people in the U.S. that includes those who developed acute hyperglycemia in the hospital.
论文的重点是她在研究中边缘化人群代表性不足的更深层次的兴趣的一部分. 该数据库是将这些人群纳入确定危险因素的一个很好的机会, 她说.
"I want to see how acute hyperglycemia affects patients, how it interacts with other infections, 与脓毒症, COVID, 等., 然后再深入观察健康的社会决定因素是如何影响这种联系的,她说.
通过了解急性高血糖与各种传染病之间复杂的相互作用, 她说，她的研究可以帮助医生更密切地关注他们的病人，因为心脏病和中风的风险可能会增加.
María Patrizia is a scholar in the American Heart Association's National Hispanic Latino Cardiovascular Collaborative, 该计划旨在促进心脏病和中风的治疗和预防，并消除西班牙裔人口的健康差距. She's also a recipient of a research service award through the National Heart, 肺, and Blood Institute that will help her achieve the next stage in her career.
“我想把我的线上电子游戏飞禽走兽分配在美国一级研究机构的教授和委内瑞拉或其他国家的研究办公室之间，这样我就可以在教学和研究之间架起桥梁,她说.