This week I am working onn my project plan and the USRDS proposal submission to request the data from the USRDS. The director, Dr. Eggers, has agreed to give a copy of the dataset to Dr. Couchoud for her assistance in analysis and comparison of the REIN French and USRDS US registries since she is an expert with the SAS statistical software program and can give me much assistance in performing the analyses and interpreting the outputs etc.

This past weekend I was able to do some  site seeing and walking tours of Paris (one of my dissertation committee professor for which I worked at FIU, Dr. Erica Gollub had given me several books and guides and walking tours with historical backgrounds of Paris as a gift before I left so they have come in quite handy) . The walk i took was in the area where I live, the Invalides, near the burial site of Napoleon, where there is a very large military museum where his tomb is located (apparently it is 7 layers deep as he was buried in 6 caskets).

I was also able to walk along the route and pass by several museums and mansions of foreign ministries and embassies of international ambassadors residing in Paris.

There are lots of very interesting fruit and vegetable shops, brasseries, and cafes and boulangeries (pastry shops) along the way that I was able to visit and look around.

 Have taken some pictures but need to find my camera connection cord to post them soon.

My first week in Paris and working with the Agence has gone very well. I have had the chance to meet several very interesting and beneficial experts here in the field of renal epidemiology  and biostatistics and nephrology and have also worked on my project plan and  finalizing my proposal aims and topics for abstracts and publications on which I plan to work with Dr. Couchoud and her colleagues during my time here.

 Yesterday I had a meeting with Dr. Couchoud and Dr. Jerome Tourret, the French nephrologist with whom we will be collaborating on the analyses of the REIN registry regarding HIV positive renal dialysis and renal transplant patients.

 I have not yet had much time to do any sight-seeing but hope to do some of that this weekend, the weather is beautiful here in Paris, though quite colder than Miami!

Hi all,

My apologies for the delay in posting my blog as I just arrived in Paris yesterday and had a few technical difficulties in setting up my laptop due to the fact that the outlet laptop converter I had purchased was not compatible and the econd one I purchased here in France is not working either so i must return it today for another one.

I arrived at the office at the Agence de la Biomedicine today for my first day via the Paris subway/metro, which i must say is quite complicated to navigate!