Clinical vs. Basic Research

[DOisALLiWANT]

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Can someone clarify the difference between clinical vs Basic research and give examples of each.

 

[Everglide]

I'm going to assume this is in reference to pre-med or gap years... In my experiences:

Clinical Research: Meet patients, talk to them about studies for informed consent. Usually work with a physician and/or PIs on the study or studies. Obviously the studies themselves vary so your duties will vary. A "clinical research" job may also solely entail data entry for patient data.
In a word: People

Bench Research: Work in a lab setting with a scientist or physician scientist. Generally won't see patients, often the work is not directly related to medicine. Think cells, microscopes, PCR. More opportunity for publication and independent projects.
In a word: Cells

Again, these are very broad generalizations and other's experiences will vary. The above just happen to be my experiences in each.

edit: Sorry I just realized you put Basic and not Bench research. For reference, Basic is a branch of Bench. Bench being the broader field.

 

[Isoprop]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_research

Clinical research is a branch of medical science that determines the safety and effectiveness of medications, devices, diagnostic products, and treatment regimens intended for human use. These may be used for prevention, treatment, diagnosis or for relief of symptoms in a disease.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_research

Basic research or fundamental research (sometimes pure research) is research carried out to increase understanding of fundamental principles. Many times the end results have no direct or immediate commercial benefits: basic research can be thought of as arising out of curiosity.

 

[DOisALLiWANT]

Thanks, very helpful!

 

[Appless]

Id say that was right on with clinical. With clinical you wont be in a lab (probably) as you will be more involved with talking to pateints, getting consents, sometimes data entry, literature reviews, as well as much more time with docs. For me it lead to a lot of opportunities to shadow, enter OR, go on rounds, etc etc. Basically if you are equally interested in both id say go clinical as it should give you a lot of interesting experience clinically that is more relevant to an application and that adcoms would likely be more interested in since you are seeing more of what it is like ot be a physician. That is of course unless you plan to go to be an academic physician or be an MD/PHD. In that case you defiantly woudl want to get some bench type research in.

 

[twocentnews]

I appreciate the clarifications too.

Anyone know of a good way to seek out a clinical or bench research job during the gap year?

 

[MarieMarie]

I appreciate the clarifications too.

Anyone know of a good way to seek out a clinical or bench research job during the gay year?

...It seems obvious that you meant "gap year," now that I've figured it out

Are you enrolled at a university? Many have websites that list labs and positions that need students. You might want to ask old professors if they know of any.

 

[Everglide]

I appreciate the clarifications too.

Anyone know of a good way to seek out a clinical or bench research job during the gay year?

During the uh... gap year 😛, I found my clinical research job through a regional university hospital's career website. Large hospitals and health groups are a good place to start looking.