Final+Proposal

Senior Thesis Formal Proposal This summer I attended the University of Pittsburgh Health Career Scholars Academy (formerly known as the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for Health Care). During this four week overnight program, I sat through hours of lectures, several pertaining to the issue of medical malpractice. There, my interest in the topic sparked and thus I will continue down this research path so that one day I can be a knowledgeable physician. Therefore, how can one survive and prevent a suit of medical malpractice? There are more specific questions that need to be answered though before one can answer the driving question. Primarily, what is medical malpractice, and how can it be prevented? This project will mainly affect my life rather than any others. By learning about medical malpractice now, if I one day do become a physician, I will be better prepared and know how to handle myself. By speaking to these professionals throughout many fields of medicine, I will gain a better understanding on how the methods to prevent malpractice vary and how any physician can survive a suit. The final product will most likely be in a paper format addressing the several interviews I will conduct. Goals: · Understand theory and practice of medical malpractice. · Learn the differences of malpractice among the fields of dentistry, pediatrics, and general physicians. · Learn of any landmark cases that every doctor must know. · Discern the differences in consequences between the three fields of medicine. · Finally, to inform others of a possible negative aspect of the medical field. Although the presentation itself will be one of the products, I will also produce a portfolio of work. In this portfolio I will have all the documents from the beginning of the project process. Therefore it will contain all of the questions from my interviews, their responses, and specific notes I have taken along the process, and my final products of both the research paper and interview analysis. In order to complete my project successfully, I need to identify several physicians or tort law professionals that I can interview. Currently I have not established the specific professionals that I will interview, however I do have three in mind: Drew D’Angelo, retired lawyer, Pouya Hatam, periodontist, and Dr. Lockman, pediatrician. While interviewing each of these professionals, I will have designed several standard questions to see how each of these professionals views malpractice. I will interview each of these professionals wherever they wish, most likely their offices, but this is still being determined as I have not contacted any of the professionals. When I will accomplish these tasks is the most important aspect of this project. Over the next week I will discuss with my mentor if I should contact any more professionals and if so, who. The following week of October 26 will be devoted to contacting these professionals through email and other means of communication. Finally, the week of November 2 will be devoted to interviewing these professionals; however, this is subject to change depending on each professional’s schedule. I do not believe that any additional research will be required. My mentor is my father Bahram Nabet. He is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Drexel University. I selected him as my topic expert because he is very experienced with interviews as he generally interviews students attempting to enter Drexel University. My dad has been very busy the past few weeks and we have not had time to discuss my topic in great depth, but this week I am planning on speaking to him. I will check in with him every Friday to discuss my progress and whether or not any revisions are necessary. My ability to analyze my own motivations, strengths, and weaknesses is crucial as I move beyond High School. What I enjoy about this project is that not only do I get to choose my own topic, but it’s a topic that I have a personal curiosity for. I want to learn about medical malpractice so that I can be better prepared for my possible future. I am building on my strengths of time management and perfecting my writing skills. However, I am not a very talkative, or comfortable person while talking to someone I do not know. Now I know these professionals in their job context but I do not know them personally, thus making this difficult for me because I will be unable to stay comfortable. If I am able to expand my comfort zone I will be able to complete this project successfully.