Clinical vs. lab research for residency apps

[daveshnave]

I was just curious to hear from people who have been through the match process... is there any difference in doing lab research vs. clinical research in medical school? I know it looks great to publish in either area, but is it better to do clinical research if I plan on working primarily as a clinician? I have a background prior to med school in chemical pharmaceutical research (mainly synthesis), with two papers published, and I actually enjoy lab work. I'm kind of undecided as a 1M with what I want to do, although I think I've narrowed it down to 4 areas: surgery, EM, peds, or oncology (via IM obviously). So is it alright to do lab research in med school without it hindering me when applying to a residency, or is it better to find a clinician doing clinical research and get involved with that, since he/she would be able to write me a letter of rec for that field... keep in mind though that I might not have a really good idea what particular area of medicine I'd like to get into until 3rd year... I'm by no means set on any one field... not to mention that if I plan on publishing anything I need to pick an area and stick to it for a while... any feedback would be helpful.

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[platinumdoc]

Speaking broadly, it will depend upon the research that you will perform in the lab.
In my opinion, unless you are going to get an MD/Phd to concentrate on basic science, I would choose to do a clinical research project related to the specialty of interest. Laboratory work would be helpful if there is a clinical correlation for your field of interest.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Originally posted by daveshnave:
•(I'm kind of undecided as a 1M with what I want to do, although I think I've narrowed it down to 4 areas: surgery, EM, peds, or oncology (via IM obviously).•

Glad to see you've worked hard on "narrowing" your focus. I can see you've eliminated dead people (path).

 

[relentless11]

Hey now, i'm doing Med Pathology here. Albeit the research is concentrating on near-patient testing, and so forth

 

[daveshnave]

Okay, I'll admit I'm a little bit undecided for right now, but I'm only an M1. So it seems (and this has also been my gut feeling) that clinical research is best if I want to be a clinician. Even though I'm not totally decided right now, I want to get involved with someone to do research ASAP, and I would say surgery is at the top of my list right now. So WHAT in fact do you actually do in surgical clinical research? I have no idea, because it seems surgery is largely procedural. Obviously I'm a little (lot) wet behind the ears, but can someone more enlightened than me fill me in about this? I don't need specifics, but more of a general idea; I really have no clue at this point. Also, as an M1, what's the best way to go about meeting someone (ie. a surgeon, etc.) so that I can get involved? It's not like we see many surgeons in the first two years...

 

[LR6SO4]

I did a bit of surgical research this summer. From what I can tell by reading journals, surgery research is really anything you make it. Could be the immune system in preventing post-op infections, could be the biochemistry of the substance of a certain pathology, outcomes of various operations and techniques. I worked on the last one, evaluating the outcomes and relapses of patients who had undergone a certain procedure.

As for finding a surgeon, look at your school. Does it have a surgery residency? It must at least have a dept. of surgery that you will rotate through in your third year. Check with both. The docs love to have pre-clinical med students around. They are there to teach surgery and encourage others interests.

I thought that it was kind of bold to shadow a doc a few times and then instantly ask him if there was any research I could work on. It seemed like I didn't know a damn thing about surgery (or even medicine in general) so how could I research it? He solved this problem by giving me some resources to read on the condition in question. In not too much time you can get a feel for the condition, and with more reading you may know more than most docs in the field. This is because you have the time to read on something that they may see quite rarely (I was working with a sub-sub specialist though).

Along with finding a doc, I found the senior residents to be most helpful with wanting research help. Find someone who is applying for fellowships. They are sure to have a project going and are guaranteed to be short on time!

 

[Claymore]

I can offer a little information about surgical research...although I am only a pre-med right now, I currently work full time as a Surgical Research Assistant. We work with several different physicians on different projects, all specialties. Topics usually relate to current issues in the literature, or sometimes to procedure follow ups (how many patients, who had procedure X, had side effects? Breakdown, etc). Sometimes our doctors are asked to write review articles, other times we come up with original questions that we address through studies. Then of course there are several drug companies who are always trying to get us to test their products. Basically there is no limit to what you can study or who you can work with. It will probably depend on the institution and what sort of expertise those physicians have. Hope that helps a bit.