Don’t Fear the White Coat

  Why is This Important Over $20 billion are squandered each year because of misdiagnosis; furthermore, anxiety is often the culprit behind misdiagnosis. Blood pressure measured in physician's offices is often inaccurate as it overestimates pressure measured in nonmedical settings. Some of the discrepancy between blood pressure values measured in a physician's office and blood pressure values measured in a nonmedical setting is due to the anxiety some individuals face when going to the doctor's office (White Coat Syndrome).  What I Am Doing This research project is designed in the hopes of eliminating, or at least reducing, anxiety experienced in a physician's office by repeatedly checking vitals until a consistent and normal value is achieved; ultimately, to improve the accuracy of vital (blood pressure and heart rate) assessment by taking into account anxiety and to lessen the brobdingnagian amount of money that is wasted each year in misdiagnosis. I am using mice for my experiment because it would be a HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) violation to use humans and because mice are also known to be exceedingly nervous animals. Why I Need Funding Without funding, I cannot purchase the blood pressure monitor I need to the measure the blood pressure of my mice. Subsequently, I would not be able to determine whether or not body temperature should be taken, along with blood pressure, to improve the accuracy of vital assessment-- taking anxiety into account-- as I would not be able to get any blood pressure readings. I currently have no money at all, so any donation is much appreciated! The machine actually costs $6,000, but I thought $1,000 was a reasonable amount to ask for, but please feel free to donate over $1,000!   A Little ABout Me I am a junior that takes Biomedical Innovations and Research at the Center for Advanced Technical Studies. My career interests include medical examiner and biomedical engineer. I am in the STEM program at Dutch Fork High School. On a side note, I love to write (mostly poetry) and I am a long jumper on the track team. I really want to help people-- I have a heart for people and to do the very best that I can to help them. My dream job is to be a medical examiner because I love the field of medicine and I love the idea of justice. Not to mention, I'd be helping people! I choose this project because recently, I went to the doctor's office and my blood pressure reading was abnormal. I had to get an EKG done, but nothing was wrong. Really and truly, I was just really nervous while I was at the doctor's office because I was afraid of a bad report-- the doctor didn't even consider that I could have had White Coat Syndrome (anxiety experienced in the doctor's office that causes blood pressure to raise temporarily) and I actually do have really bad White Coat Syndrome. I then did some research on how much money is wasted in misdiagnosis each year and thus came about my project!