Cold emailing research

[tansky]

M1, there is a waitlist for the faculty research at my school and the other offered programs only have a handful of spots.
I met a resident on campus and we discussed some plans but they are extremely busy.

Who do I even contact at local hospitals to cold email for research and how do I get their information?

I have a year of research from undergrad that resulted in a poster publication.

Thanks!

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[Styrene]

What exactly is your school setting? University hospital? Standalone medical school with multiple clinical affiliates? Something else?

 

[GoSpursGo]

Cold email is gonna be pretty useless. This is where networking can help—that means taking the time to show up to those interest group meetings, saying hello to the faculty, and after meeting them a few times then you can see if there is a path to doing research. But you often have to put in some time up front to make the connection if you want the desired outcome downstream

 

[lanzhou_lamian]

Every research project I’ve gotten on I’ve gotten through cold emailing. Regarding finding a PI, most departments at our school have a list of faculty on their website. I just go through the list, put each name into pub med, and see what kind of stuff they’re producing. Once I find 4-5 that interest me, I’ll cold email them. I’d say 80% of people I’ve cold emailed are at least willing to have a 30 minute zoom meeting to run through my interests and what they’re working on in their labs.

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

I know I am an exception, but I got into research at a good name college of medicine the summer before M1 started. I emailed probably 40 doctors by looking up their profiles on the college of medicine website. I had 1 guy email me back, but that’s all it takes. I stayed on with them until about 3rd year which got me 4 publications. Some things in life are just about luck, but I also would have never gotten that opportunity if I didn’t take the first step.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

This is why LCME should have stricter criteria for approving schools. Take my school for example, students struggle to get research because most clinical sites are community and docs have no interest. I doubt that happens at NIH funded schools

 

[PandaBaer]

This is why LCME should have stricter criteria for approving schools. Take my school for example, students struggle to get research because most clinical sites are community and docs have no interest. I doubt that happens at NIH funded schools

LCME should definitely not be encouraging the academic arms race. Research has no correlation to clinical competence. Just because academic programs over-index on it doesn't mean schools should too. The truly motivated will find a way, or take extra time to get the experience needed.

 

[alldayallnight]

I know I am an exception, but I got into research at a good name college of medicine the summer before M1 started. I emailed probably 40 doctors by looking up their profiles on the college of medicine website. I had 1 guy email me back, but that’s all it takes. I stayed on with them until about 3rd year which got me 4 publications. Some things in life are just about luck, but I also would have never gotten that opportunity if I didn’t take the first step.

did you have to get affiliated with the school, get on an IRB, obtain credentials so you could access data, etc? i’ve already graduated and starting M1 in the fall so i’m asking doctors from schools in my area but no sure if i need to be affiliated with the schools or not

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

did you have to get affiliated with the school, get on an IRB, obtain credentials so you could access data, etc? i’ve already graduated and starting M1 in the fall so i’m asking doctors from schools in my area but no sure if i need to be affiliated with the schools or not

Their research department had me fill out paperwork and gave me a badge. I guess at that point I was essentially an unpaid employee. I was not affiliated with the school in any way prior to this.