They're Needing Volunteers for Studies at VTC

Tech professor and two students address journalists this morning.

Virginia Tech's various PR departments (and they are many) annually meets with journalists in the Roanoke Valley in order to exchange greetings, update us on new stories and introduce us to members of their departments. It's always cordial, informative and, if you pay attention, good for generating stories.

This morning's meeting was at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and it was a corker, featuring six people (four teachers/scientists and two students) with stories that ranged from astonishing to stupendous. The work going on down on Riverside will stand your hair on end.

We discovered that if you want to be part of that work, you can volunteer ($15 an hour as a standardized patient; other pay levels for other programs) for a number of studies they're doing, one of which is simply being an actor who pretends to be a patient. There are bunches of openings for those. There are spots for diabetics and variously addicted  and addiction-recovering people, as well.

If you are interested in taking part, the Standardized Patient link is here.That is for people who want to be pretend patients. Other volunteers for a variety of studies will be part of the research study and the link is here.

The study that interests me most (and for which I am planning to write a column and become a guinea pig) is one on addiction and recovery (they want to know how I've stayed off the sauce for 17 years this month; and I want to tell them).

Stay tuned for more.