Productivity.

I feel very productive today. I finished my tiny grant (not terribly difficult when it’s only one page), and will be submitting it by Friday. It’s kind of an open-ended idea, but that’s to be expected for a pilot grant. We are trying to build the groundwork for a bigger submission in the future. Or at least, we’re trying to convince the funding agency that we’re going to be laying the groundwork for a bigger submission later. I’m not sure that’s what we’re actually doing, because I’m not sure my department is willing to commit to the kind of investment of time and trouble I’d need to make in order to write a major NIH or AHRQ grant.

But the people who administer the funds for this grant are aware of me, and still seem to think of me as a hotshot new guy. The funding is institutional money from one of MECMC’s partner universities. And with any luck, they’ll want to give me some funding and opportunity before I reveal that I’m an idiot. And of course, I’d love to be developing ideas for grant submissions. And writing grants. As long as my job doesn’t depend on their success. I don’t want to talk myself back into a soft-money position.

And I also got my first protocol at MECMC through the IRB. Well, actually, I didn’t write a protocol. I wrote a tiny blurb about what I was essentially doing, and how I only used deidentified data, and they agreed that under the rules it does not constitute human subjects research. This gives me carte blanche to simulate and then publish the results. That’s very exciting. I am now permitted, sans restriction, to do what I came to MECMC to do: create simulations, improve health care delivery processes, and publish the results.

I’m a happy engineer, my fellow denizens of the web. And a happy scientist.