Confused about Research experience :\

[Tatarin1989]

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So given how much research experience is emphasized in med school admission process I have a question. Past summer I have been employed with the NYC Dept. of health, working in a virus laboratory. The laboratory primarily dealt with receiving clinical specimen from various hospitals around the city and then performing a serious of tests (mainly Polymerase Chain Reactions and lot of other virus identification techniques) to determine whether a specimen is positive or negative for a specific virus. As an intern I did bunch of paperwork, performed some internet research on methods to improve the existing techniques and also performed a crapload of the PCR test to determine whether specimen is positive or negative. It is kinda cool, but the lab where I worked was crucial to the H1N1 epidemic, as it received virtually all the specimen from NYC hospitals.
So question I have is.... Does that count as research experience? I have talked to some ppl, and they told me that the whole process of performing these tests (really really long and tedious) is considered research. But lab itself is, obviously, not research oriented (it's not like they are hunting for some protein, wtv. u get my drift).
How relevant would this experience be for Med School? Under what experience would it fall? Laboratory?

I would greatly appreciate any feedback. Thanks Guys!!!

 

[randombetch]

Was the project you worked on in any way "publishable?"

 

[Tatarin1989]

None of what was going on in the lab was publishable. I mean closest to that was the NYTimes article published about the lab, but obviously that is irrelevant 😛. Like I said, it's a reference lab (thats how they call it) where all the specimens from the city come in and we have to work on them to determine if the results are positive or negative. It was all patient's specimens, also.

 

[BlueElmo]

Well any kind of research will only help you. Make sure you can talk about it well during your interview, and you should be fine.

 

[Tatarin1989]

I guess u are right. I am just confused whether this would count as " research " experience. I guess the part of determining whether specimen is swine flu + or - is considered research.

Aside from that, I have noticed that and I must say that ur avatar pic looks very strangely attractive. LOL 😛

 

[insane]

so you did a bunch of PCR thats 90% of what the molbio/genetics/bioinfo researchers do at my school. If you have any qualms just list it as lab experience.

 

[austinap]

so you did a bunch of PCR thats 90% of what the molbio/genetics/bioinfo researchers do at my school. If you have any qualms just list it as lab experience.

A major difference is that the researchers at your school are likely testing hypotheses.


Are you getting paid? If so, I'd list it under paid employment. If not, you could potentially list it under research, but realize that you're opening yourself up for some pretty harsh questions (what hypothesis were you testing? Did you publish anything? What are future directions of your project?).

If I were the one reading your application and I saw this experience, I'd qualify it as 'lab experience' but probably not 'research experience' as it seems to lack the intellectual portion of a true research project. It is important, but different. Conversely, there are plenty of projects that I'd consider to be research projects even though they never enter a lab. The whole of theoretical physics comes to mind.

 

[tinery]

Did you do this through the Health Research Training Program? I almost did an internship with them, but I would have ended up classifying mosquitoes found in nyc water samples as having or not having West Nile lol.

From what you said it sounds like you do technician-like things, like repeated predetermined tasks. Do you feel like your work required thought and problem solving at all? Did you get to keep track of trends or anything?

If you feel like it was mostly mindless work that could have been done by reading a manual then I agree with other people that it's lab experience, but not research experience.

 

[tinery]

Did you do this through the Health Research Training Program? I almost did an internship with them, but I would have ended up classifying mosquitoes found in nyc water samples as having or not having West Nile lol.

From what you said it sounds like you do technician-like things, like repeated predetermined tasks. Do you feel like your work required thought and problem solving at all? Did you get to keep track of trends or anything?

If you feel like it was mostly mindless work that could have been done by reading a manual then I agree with other people that it's lab experience, but not research experience.

 

[LizzyM]

Technically, I would not call it research but I think that you should call it "paid, non-military" or "volunteer, clinical" depending on whether you were employed or not. (If you don't think this is a clinical experience, bite me. It is as clinical as a pathologist's day is long).

In the description of the activity, describe your role in PCR or whatever. This does show that you have transferrable skills if you should want to do bench research in med school. You might also say that you now have some insight into what happens when clinicians send samples to the City lab for testing and some of the difficulties that ensue for clinicians (delays, etc).

 

[ShinyDome19]

I would say its science research if you were developing a hypothesis and then testing it...This applies to methods as well...there are journals out there that are specific for the development of new research techniques/methods. But, simply looking up techniques on the internet and applying them is not considered research, just lab experience.

 

[Tatarin1989]

Did you do this through the Health Research Training Program? I almost did an internship with them, but I would have ended up classifying mosquitoes found in nyc water samples as having or not having West Nile lol.

From what you said it sounds like you do technician-like things, like repeated predetermined tasks. Do you feel like your work required thought and problem solving at all? Did you get to keep track of trends or anything?

If you feel like it was mostly mindless work that could have been done by reading a manual then I agree with other people that it's lab experience, but not research experience.

Yes, I did it through the HRTP. Since I am a public Health major, i thought it would be a good experience. Hopefully I will also work with HRTP this summer (i hope it's not repetitive benchwork) but something more research oriented.

Thanks for all of your input. I guess there is a fine line in this case, but based on your responses, it would probably be best if it were a laboratory experience or clinical experience (Thanks, LizzyM!) since we are dealing with patients' sputum after all 😛