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Away Research Elective
- Thread starter The Duck Knows
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I'm not sure it's common but there are a couple ways to go about doing this.
First, you could "bookend" it to a clinical away rotation. Basically, you spend two months at one place, with one month designated as a "clinical" month and a second month as a "research" month. You would have to contact programs you're interested in to see if they can accommodate such an arrangement, but this would give you a longer period of time to collect/analyze data while getting to know faculty and residents. The downside is that lots of programs won't be able to get you set up for two months. You'd also have to arrange this early in your clinical aways, which most people do during the summer between third and fourth year. This would give you the greatest chance at generating something publishable in time for the application submission period (September of your 4th year).
A second approach would be to find a dedicated research elective. Again, you would want to do this early in order to have a publication or poster come out of it. This is what I did, and it worked well for me. I ended up doing an away at a major research institution at the mid-point of my MS3 year (January), and was able to submit something to ASTRO and get on a couple papers as well.
In my opinion, the part of all this that will make your life the easiest is finding a good PI/research mentor who will help you find a good project that is doable in the time you have. If people at your med school have matched into rad onc in previous years, ask them where they did their research and who was helpful. Networking goes a long way in getting involved in research.
Good luck!
First, you could "bookend" it to a clinical away rotation. Basically, you spend two months at one place, with one month designated as a "clinical" month and a second month as a "research" month. You would have to contact programs you're interested in to see if they can accommodate such an arrangement, but this would give you a longer period of time to collect/analyze data while getting to know faculty and residents. The downside is that lots of programs won't be able to get you set up for two months. You'd also have to arrange this early in your clinical aways, which most people do during the summer between third and fourth year. This would give you the greatest chance at generating something publishable in time for the application submission period (September of your 4th year).
A second approach would be to find a dedicated research elective. Again, you would want to do this early in order to have a publication or poster come out of it. This is what I did, and it worked well for me. I ended up doing an away at a major research institution at the mid-point of my MS3 year (January), and was able to submit something to ASTRO and get on a couple papers as well.
In my opinion, the part of all this that will make your life the easiest is finding a good PI/research mentor who will help you find a good project that is doable in the time you have. If people at your med school have matched into rad onc in previous years, ask them where they did their research and who was helpful. Networking goes a long way in getting involved in research.
Good luck!
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One strategy would be to do cancer focused research at your home institution now, and try and set up a combined research/clinic 2 month elective for July/August of your PGY-4 year. Doing an away as a PGY-3 is difficult because some home programs or aways don't allow it. Also, especially if it early, you may need a little more clinical experience before going to a institution you are looking to impress and maybe get an interview offer from at some point.
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Sorry to bump, but how do you go about finding these electives? The only one I've found so far is at MSKCC. I found one in UF, but it seems to be primarily for their own students.
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You just have to ask around to see who might have an opportunity. My institution prefers that medical students spend at least an extra month dedicated to research if they want to rotate and do research also. Like laserbeams, I think your odds of getting at least a presentation and publication are high if you put in the effort.
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Are these opportunities first come first serve? Or is this something that students apply for with CVs and board scores?
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Better for radiation oncology papers than other oncology papers. Not that oncology papers in general are worthless, just less valuable.
Missing out on a month or two of rotations kind of sucks. I don't have a great answer for you. Could do aways in August, September, and October, so that by the time ASTRO ends (depending on when it is) you'll have 3 rotations and letters from hopefully 2 of them.
Missing out on a month or two of rotations kind of sucks. I don't have a great answer for you. Could do aways in August, September, and October, so that by the time ASTRO ends (depending on when it is) you'll have 3 rotations and letters from hopefully 2 of them.
