-: 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.