DIVISION: Research

[frdivisions]

DIVISION

RESEARCH

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The Research Division houses a diverse variety of Inquisition efforts both magical and mundane, investigating things Inquisition agents encounter in their missions and experimenting with innovative methods to assist them. This may include anything from identifying and classifying new medicinal plants to preserving ancient manuscripts to inventing new types of magical grenades, and everything in between.

LEADER: Thranduil (info!)
PROJECTS: Corypheus' History, Rifts & the Veil

 

Comments

[periastron]

Provost Thranduil,

We spoke briefly on the crystals, and I know there’s a lot going on right now, so I'll keep this brief.
I’m getting in touch because I’ve been trying to figure out the possibility of research into advancing surgical medicine to better serve the Inquisition.

I recently helped conduct a survey where just over half the survey participants said they would be willing to undergo surgery. Surgery in these parts isn’t in a good place. The lack of anaesthesia, sterilisation and other equipment is a big problem, and it can make a huge difference to a patient’s likelihood of recovery and survival. Honestly, any hesitations that people have regarding surgery here are more than fair.
 
I’d like to request funding and resources to being able to research and develop better surgical supplies, and adapt methods for what we have available here. Commander Coupe said she’d be willing to split the expense with the Research Division, but I wanted to know if you’d be willing, and what issues we might need to address. I know blood magic and possession both stand in the way of research, and in the way of accessing cadavers.

I haven’t reached out to anyone yet, but the names Niehaus and Vauquelin were suggested to me as people I need to contact. I already know Cosima, but the other name isn’t familiar.

Let me know your thoughts.

Alex Karahalios

PS please remind Commander Coupe that I’m a “Doctor,” not a “Mademoiselle”

[rowancrowned]

𝔇𝔬𝔠𝔱𝔬𝔯 𝔎𝔞𝔯𝔞𝔥𝔞𝔩𝔦𝔬𝔰,

ℑ 𝔴𝔬𝔲𝔩𝔡 𝔟𝔢 𝔳𝔢𝔯𝔶 𝔭𝔩𝔢𝔞𝔰𝔢𝔡 𝔱𝔬 𝔬𝔣𝔣𝔢𝔯 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔞𝔫 𝔦𝔫𝔱𝔯𝔬𝔡𝔲𝔠𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫 𝔱𝔬 𝔊𝔢𝔯𝔳𝔞𝔦𝔰 𝔙𝔞𝔲𝔮𝔲𝔢𝔩𝔦𝔫; 𝔥𝔢 𝔦𝔰 𝔞 𝔥𝔢𝔞𝔩𝔢𝔯 𝔴𝔥𝔬, 𝔞𝔰 ℑ 𝔲𝔫𝔡𝔢𝔯𝔰𝔱𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔦𝔱, 𝔰𝔭𝔢𝔠𝔦𝔞𝔩𝔦𝔷𝔢𝔰 𝔭𝔯𝔦𝔪𝔞𝔯𝔦𝔩𝔶 𝔦𝔫 𝔟𝔦𝔯𝔱𝔥 (𝔥𝔢 𝔡𝔬𝔢𝔰 𝔫𝔬𝔱 𝔩𝔞𝔟𝔢𝔩 𝔥𝔦𝔪𝔰𝔢𝔩𝔣 𝔞 𝔪𝔦𝔡𝔴𝔦𝔣𝔢) 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔦𝔰 𝔣𝔞𝔪𝔦𝔩𝔦𝔞𝔯 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔒𝔯𝔩𝔢𝔰𝔦𝔞𝔫 𝔫𝔬𝔟𝔦𝔩𝔦𝔱𝔶 𝔱𝔥𝔯𝔬𝔲𝔤𝔥 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔱𝔥𝔯𝔬𝔲𝔤𝔥 𝔥𝔦𝔰 𝔬𝔴𝔫 𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔦𝔱𝔞𝔤𝔢.

𝔎𝔫𝔬𝔴𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔶𝔬𝔲𝔯 𝔮𝔲𝔞𝔩𝔦𝔣𝔦𝔠𝔞𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫𝔰 𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔫𝔢𝔡 𝔦𝔫 𝔶𝔬𝔲𝔯 𝔭𝔯𝔢𝔳𝔦𝔬𝔲𝔰 𝔥𝔬𝔪𝔢-- 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔪𝔢𝔞𝔫𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔬𝔣 𝔴𝔬𝔯𝔡𝔰 𝔰𝔲𝔠𝔥 𝔞𝔰 '𝔞𝔫𝔞𝔢𝔰𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔰𝔦𝔞'-- 𝔴𝔬𝔲𝔩𝔡 𝔡𝔬 𝔞 𝔤𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔱 𝔡𝔢𝔞𝔩 𝔱𝔬𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔡𝔰 𝔧𝔲𝔰𝔱𝔦𝔣𝔶𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔢𝔵𝔭𝔢𝔫𝔰𝔢 𝔬𝔣 𝔞𝔫𝔶 𝔯𝔢𝔰𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔠𝔥. ℑ 𝔞𝔪 𝔤𝔢𝔫𝔢𝔯𝔞𝔩𝔩𝔶 𝔦𝔫𝔠𝔩𝔦𝔫𝔢𝔡 𝔱𝔬 𝔟𝔢𝔩𝔦𝔢𝔳𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔱 ℜ𝔦𝔣𝔱𝔢𝔯𝔰 𝔞𝔯𝔢 𝔞𝔰 𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔶 𝔰𝔞𝔶 𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔶 𝔞𝔯𝔢; 𝔴𝔢 𝔥𝔞𝔳𝔢 𝔫𝔬𝔱 𝔥𝔞𝔡 𝔞 𝔩𝔦𝔞𝔯 𝔶𝔢𝔱. 𝔟𝔲𝔱 𝔱𝔥𝔬𝔯𝔬𝔲𝔤𝔥 𝔡𝔬𝔠𝔲𝔪𝔢𝔫𝔱𝔞𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫 𝔬𝔣 𝔢𝔵𝔞𝔠𝔱𝔩𝔶 𝔴𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔡𝔦𝔡 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔞𝔯𝔢 𝔶𝔢𝔱 𝔞𝔟𝔩𝔢 𝔱𝔬 𝔡𝔬 𝔦𝔰 𝔟𝔢𝔱𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔞𝔩𝔩.

𝔈𝔰𝔭𝔢𝔠𝔦𝔞𝔩𝔩𝔶 𝔦𝔣 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔩𝔢𝔞𝔳𝔢 𝔲𝔰.

𝔉𝔬𝔯 𝔴𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔭𝔲𝔯𝔭𝔬𝔰𝔢 𝔡𝔬 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔫𝔢𝔢𝔡 𝔠𝔞𝔡𝔞𝔳𝔢𝔯𝔰? ℑ𝔰 𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔢 𝔞𝔫𝔶 𝔰𝔭𝔢𝔠𝔦𝔞𝔩𝔦𝔷𝔢𝔡 𝔢𝔮𝔲𝔦𝔭𝔪𝔢𝔫𝔱 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔥𝔞𝔳𝔢 𝔶𝔢𝔱 𝔱𝔬 𝔣𝔦𝔫𝔡 𝔞𝔫 𝔯𝔢𝔰𝔦𝔩𝔦𝔢𝔫𝔱 𝔬𝔣 𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔢? 𝔄𝔯𝔢 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔣𝔞𝔪𝔦𝔩𝔦𝔞𝔯 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔫𝔞𝔱𝔦𝔳𝔢 𝔱𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔱𝔪𝔢𝔫𝔱𝔰 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔫𝔢𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔰? 𝔄𝔯𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔢 𝔞𝔫𝔶 𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔫𝔢𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔰 𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔢 𝔫𝔬𝔱 𝔭𝔯𝔢𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔱 𝔦𝔫 𝔶𝔬𝔲𝔯 𝔣𝔬𝔯𝔪𝔢𝔯 𝔥𝔬𝔪𝔢? 𝔄𝔯𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔢 𝔞𝔫𝔶 𝔰𝔭𝔢𝔠𝔦𝔣𝔦𝔠 𝔰𝔲𝔯𝔤𝔢𝔯𝔦𝔢𝔰 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔴𝔬𝔲𝔩𝔡 𝔴𝔦𝔰𝔥 𝔱𝔬 𝔰𝔢𝔢 𝔞𝔡𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔡 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔲𝔰𝔢 𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔢?

𝔖𝔦𝔫𝔠𝔢𝔯𝔢𝔩𝔶,

𝔗𝔥𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔡𝔲𝔦𝔩
𝔓𝔯𝔬𝔳𝔬𝔰𝔱

[periastron]

Provost,

My qualifications and training are hard to translate into what this world uses, but I’ll do my best. Sorry this isn't the best organised letter out there, but I didn't want to waste paper by re-writing this to death.

Writing out everything I can do would take a very long time and would be pretty hard to do exhaustively, if you wanted it broken down to skill by skill. Here’s a basic rundown of my education:

Twelve years of standard education in my country - maths, literature, science, history, etc.

After that, I when to university to study Biomedicine for three years, which I completed with an additional Honours year. Biomed is all about health, medicine, biomedical research. A big part of my focus was physiology. Hard to summarise, but I did well enough to get a guaranteed spot in a graduate course, and for a while I intended go into medicine and figured out I was going to specialise in surgery. Instead I decided to go into veterinary medicine and focus on animals rather than humans. My doctorate was an additional four years of study, on top of the four years of Biomed. Granted the physiology and a lot of stuff between people and animals is different, but it’s not like I’ve forgotten biomed, and veterinary medicine requires being knowledgeable in a lot of different areas, whereas doctors for people might only specialise in a particular field.

For the last five years I’ve been working as veterinarian, and doing some supplementary courses to expand my skills and expertise. Truthfully, I find university academia a bit shit and tiring and a pain in my backside, and I was bloody glad when I was done with it. The reality is, when you expand on the theory you can expand the practical side of stuff and use it to help people and creatures.

Cadavers are traditionally used to help medical students learn anatomy and practice techniques. Here I’d look at using them for perfecting surgical techniques and surgeries I’ve not done before, and figuring out if new equipment will do the job. Practicing and figuring all that out on cadavers would be a lot better than trialling it on living patients whose lives need saving.

I’m still learning about the local diseases, but I’m going to assume that yes, there are things I haven’t seen here before. Even if there aren’t different sicknesses to my world, it’s not like we know about all the diseases there, either. Since this place has dragons, I don’t know, maybe there’s dragon pox. I’ve seen some of the native treatments, and there’s a mix of stuff that is known to be useless at best, harmful and life-threatening at worst, and some stuff I’ve never seen before. My world doesn’t have magic, for example.

The things that we really need are better surgical tools, facilities for sterilising and cleaning equipment so it can be safely used, anaesthesia, antibiotics.

Anaesthesia are drugs that stop a patient from feeling pain and sometimes make them unconscious. This is really, really important in surgery for a few reasons. First of all, if a patient can’t feel what is being done to them, it’s not going to be traumatic, which could lead to different problems and cause complications and dangers in the surgery. Secondly, they’re able to stay still (less thrashing and screaming) and give the surgeon a chance to get things done, and get them done without hurting them or doing more damage, and be able to better focus on what they’re doing. It basically gives the surgeon more time and means more complicated surgeries can be done than might otherwise be possible.

Antibiotics are very strong medicine, and very important. They help the body heal after surgery by fighting disease that could sneak in while the body’s healing up from getting cut up and poked about. Being able to sterilise equipment with extremely hot steam will help as well, and making sure people scrub down their hands properly and all that. Antibiotics will be a challenge to figure out, and honestly I don’t know if we will. Magic might be necessary to help heal incisions to avoid infections, I don’t know, but the more we can do the better the rates of survival and opportunities to make lives better will be.

I'm happy to answer any questions you can fling at me, unless they involve iambic pentameter.

Alex

[rowancrowned]

𝔇𝔬𝔠𝔱𝔬𝔯 𝔎𝔞𝔯𝔞𝔥𝔞𝔩𝔦𝔬𝔰,

ℭ𝔬𝔫𝔰𝔦𝔡𝔢𝔯 𝔶𝔬𝔲𝔯𝔰𝔢𝔩𝔣 𝔞𝔭𝔭𝔯𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔡. ℜ𝔢𝔱𝔲𝔯𝔫 𝔱𝔬 𝔪𝔢 𝔞𝔰 𝔫𝔢𝔢𝔡𝔢𝔡 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔯𝔢𝔮𝔲𝔢𝔰𝔱𝔰 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔣𝔲𝔯𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔯 𝔣𝔲𝔫𝔡𝔦𝔫𝔤.

ℑ 𝔩𝔬𝔬𝔨 𝔣𝔬𝔯𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔡 𝔱𝔬 𝔰𝔢𝔢𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔴𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔞𝔠𝔠𝔬𝔪𝔭𝔩𝔦𝔰𝔥.

𝔗𝔥𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔡𝔲𝔦𝔩
𝔓𝔯𝔬𝔳𝔬𝔰𝔱