Cardiology Research

[Future_HeartMD]

This is probably a dumb question but I've run out of ideas so far. I'm currently in my 4th year of med school and have various completed research projects on my CV (only 1 of which is cardiology related-case report presented at ACC 22 and published in JACC case reports). However, I'm very interested in cardiology as a career and with the extra time I have right now, I want to get in on some research projects to boost my CV later. So I reached out to my home program's cardiology department and was ghosted repeatedly. I then reached out to other hospitals in the area to see if they have any opportunities and was rejected either by no response or by stupid hospital policies. So I then reached out on ACC member hub and there was no response in my region. Anyone have any advice for going from here? Does anyone on here have anything they'd like to collaborate on? Again probably a dumb question but I thought I'd ask just in case.

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[Dr.Forssmann]

This is probably a dumb question but I've run out of ideas so far. I'm currently in my 4th year of med school and have various completed research projects on my CV (only 1 of which is cardiology related-case report presented at ACC 22 and published in JACC case reports). However, I'm very interested in cardiology as a career and with the extra time I have right now, I want to get in on some research projects to boost my CV later. So I reached out to my home program's cardiology department and was ghosted repeatedly. I then reached out to other hospitals in the area to see if they have any opportunities and was rejected either by no response or by stupid hospital policies. So I then reached out on ACC member hub and there was no response in my region. Anyone have any advice for going from here? Does anyone on here have anything they'd like to collaborate on? Again probably a dumb question but I thought I'd ask just in case.

I am gonna offer some advice that I have had to learn the hard way:

I had a very similar experience as a medical student. I couldn't make any inroads with our faculty at my program (although, idk how you came by a case that was good enough for ACC/JACC case reports without inroads). I am guessing it is because they reserve research for the fellows and residents. Now, I am a second year resident and I have come to realize that no one hands you anything. You have to learn to create the research and bring it to your faculty yourself, and honestly its the most rewarding thing to take a project from inception, start to finish. I am doubling my productivity every year. Last year 1 projects now two projects hope to maybe start 2-4 projects next year. Everyone is starving for research, to get involved in a project, no one is willing to go out of their way to create it from scratch and gamble their effort on something they believe in. Faculty respect you way more if you can do this. Also, another thing I learned. I had some experiences where I put in a lot of effort data collecting as an intern and when push came to shove at the last minute I was either kicked off the project for whatever reason or the project never came to fruition for whatever reason. If you create your own projects you won't run into this. You'd be surprised what you can publish just by twisting one variable or taking a project that's been done before and putting a twist on it. Hell, you can take someone else's project straight up and make it a bigger project with a bigger N and publish that. The only limit is the one you place on yourself. Now take this advice and go match at Harvard cardiology.

 

[Future_HeartMD]

I am gonna offer some advice that I have had to learn the hard way:

I had a very similar experience as a medical student. I couldn't make any inroads with our faculty at my program (although, idk how you came by a case that was good enough for ACC/JACC case reports without inroads). I am guessing it is because they reserve research for the fellows and residents. Now, I am a second year resident and I have come to realize that no one hands you anything. You have to learn to create the research and bring it to your faculty yourself, and honestly its the most rewarding thing to take a project from inception, start to finish. I am doubling my productivity every year. Last year 1 projects now two projects hope to maybe start 2-4 projects next year. Everyone is starving for research, to get involved in a project, no one is willing to go out of their way to create it from scratch and gamble their effort on something they believe in. Faculty respect you way more if you can do this. Also, another thing I learned. I had some experiences where I put in a lot of effort data collecting as an intern and when push came to shove at the last minute I was either kicked off the project for whatever reason or the project never came to fruition for whatever reason. If you create your own projects you won't run into this. You'd be surprised what you can publish just by twisting one variable or taking a project that's been done before and putting a twist on it. Hell, you can take someone else's project straight up and make it a bigger project with a bigger N and publish that. The only limit is the one you place on yourself. Now take this advice and go match at Harvard cardiology.

Thank you for your insight I really appreciate it. I started to get a feeling that this would be the case. I'm not afraid of starting a project and putting in the work to complete it but my problem is a lack of experience in generating clinical research questions. Do you have any advice/tips or any resources for this? Thanks!

 

[Dr.Forssmann]

Thank you for your insight I really appreciate it. I started to get a feeling that this would be the case. I'm not afraid of starting a project and putting in the work to complete it but my problem is a lack of experience in generating clinical research questions. Do you have any advice/tips or any resources for this? Thanks!

You are asking for all of my hard earned secrets!

One way is to attend cardiology didactics, there you will see a plethora interesting cases. At the end of the lecture, you can go up an ask if you can write it up. This will generate a steady flow of case reports. As you are writing up the case reports, you will learn the literature and find gaps where there may be an opportunity to create a retrospective study. Remember, nothing is beneath you and also that you can make anything interesting/publishable; the question is more so where you will publish. As you build your study, you will find yourself asking additional questions which can be turned into other studies. You may find that your study can be split into multiple papers by running a variable a different way or collecting some additional data. (I split one of my retrospective studies into 3 seperate papers) Also, observe when faculty/fellows start debating topics may be areas of potential research, obviously if they are debating there must be a paucity of literature. Finally, by attending the didactics you develop your own questions , as you read up on those you will find areas where there may be a paucity of literature.

I have noticed that all of my clinical questions have really developed from close examination of the literature. Basically whenever you do that you start to find gaps that you can fill. I think the cardiology didactics are an easy way to grow your knowledge base, get information that is clinically important/digestable, and also examine the literature in detail. Also, you create connections with the fellows who then graduate and go to other programs. I am feeling pretty confident going into this cycle that I will at least get 3-4 interviews just by knowing these guys and asking them to recommend/refer me to the program leadership.