Two New Staff Members Work with Participants and Their Data
The Center for Health Research (CHR) now has a full-time data manager to help with creating and adapting databases for storing patient assessment and intervention information. Nickolas Katsantones, who studied computer science at Cal Poly, has been working with CHR for three years and became full-time last summer.
The tracking system he manages stores all participant data and allows staff to run retention reports and track completeness of collected data. While Katsantones is focusing on building and improving the tracking system for the Gestational Diabetes Prevention (GDP) study, he is also working on creating a template database for new studies and a community registry of people who are interested in participating in future studies.
Jasmine Rubalcava joined the CHR team as an interventionist around the same time as Katsantones. Rubalcava, who received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Cal Poly, is working on the GDP study, helping women who have had gestational diabetes in a past pregnancy make and track weight-loss goals. Rubalcava comes to CHR from the Family Service Agency where she worked in the public schools as a family advocate. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree to become a marriage and family therapist.