Different types of clincal research???

[Lawpy]

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Yeah, definitely field dependent. Also probably school dependent. Hard to work with people with 0 experience and no willingness to learn new techniques. Like they're still in the mindset of "I just put in X hours a week in the 'lab' and I get something out of it." That's not how clinical research works. You need hard skills to succeed.

Wait who even thinks that? That’s a premed mentality that doesn’t make sense for any research, including basic science and clinical.

 

[Dr G Oogle]

Wait who even thinks that? That’s a premed mentality that doesn’t make sense for any research, including basic science and clinical.

This is actually the exact mentality of the med students I work with is. I literally have some of them text me and say “ I need an abstract by 3 months from now”. My response “you better get crackin”

 

[srstudent]

Keeping things VERY general, In terms of academic impact:

Prospective Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial > Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial >> Prospective Matched Trial (Both Retro and Prospective)

Systematic Review with Meta-analysis > Systematic Review

Retrospective Cohort Study>>>>> Case Series (no stats, just characterizing things) >>>>>>>>>>Case Reports

Regarding time, for prospective studies I've found the things taking the most time are IRB approval (my hospital takes forever), and patient recruitment. For retrospective studies, the amount of time needed depends on the number of patients (charts) to review and the number of variables in question.

Before doing ANY research, do a power analysis and a literature review. No sense in wasting your time if the topic is published ad nauseam or the number of patients needed to find a significant result is >10,000.

Don't waste your time on case reports.

@Newyear , feel free to PM me if you have questions. Currently on a clinical research year in residency.

Why is a case report a waste of time if it can get the med student a publication?

 

[Dr G Oogle]

Why is a case report a waste of time if it can get the med student a publication?

Case reports are extremely hard to get published, the threshold for any reasonable journal is basically something that hasn’t been seen before, done before, or something that no one has thought of about an existing treatment or condition. They are also not that much work despite the high bar for publication, so even if it gets published it’s (I’m sorry to say) not very impressive if it appears on your application. A long time ago case reports were really the main way of disseminating information, and were a lot more valuable form of academic currency, but not so now.

 

[Lawpy]

Case reports are extremely hard to get published, the threshold for any reasonable journal is basically something that hasn’t been seen before, done before, or something that no one has thought of about an existing treatment or condition. They are also not that much work despite the high bar for publication, so even if it gets published it’s (I’m sorry to say) not very impressive if it appears on your application. A long time ago case reports were really the main way of disseminating information, and were a lot more valuable form of academic currency, but not so now.

Case reports can be still valuable but those are published by academic powerhouses at elite journals.

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

Case reports are extremely hard to get published, the threshold for any reasonable journal is basically something that hasn’t been seen before, done before, or something that no one has thought of about an existing treatment or condition. They are also not that much work despite the high bar for publication, so even if it gets published it’s (I’m sorry to say) not very impressive if it appears on your application. A long time ago case reports were really the main way of disseminating information, and were a lot more valuable form of academic currency, but not so now.

This goes against what a lot of program directors are saying. I spoke to the program director at my school as well as one at a different institution in orthopedics about this topic and as sad as it may be their answers were "quantity >>> " for the sole reason that they can't read through everyones research when they get hundreds of applicants every year. So the easiest way to differentiate applicants is just by looking at how much research they have and what journals they are published in. Now if you have a few publications that are all high tier journals that is entirely different and that definitely has weight, but at the medical school level no one is expecting us to be publishing into nature or having these ground breaking discoveries that revolutionize medicine. I don't like that research has become a numbers game and that it is used so heavily in the residency application process, but the fact of the matter is that this is how it is so all we can do is play the game.

 

[GoSpursGo]

This goes against what a lot of program directors are saying. I spoke to the program director at my school as well as one at a different institution in orthopedics about this topic and as sad as it may be their answers were "quantity >>> " for the sole reason that they can't read through everyones research when they get hundreds of applicants every year. So the easiest way to differentiate applicants is just by looking at how much research they have and what journals they are published in. Now if you have a few publications that are all high tier journals that is entirely different and that definitely has weight, but at the medical school level no one is expecting us to be publishing into nature or having these ground breaking discoveries that revolutionize medicine. I don't like that research has become a numbers game and that it is used so heavily in the residency application process, but the fact of the matter is that this is how it is so all we can do is play the game.

As you note--the journal matters too, and a lot of the good journals just don't publish case reports.

Bottom line, case reports are fine and work to increase your quantity. But if you're really going for a competitive specialty, you should probably have one or two publications that is higher quality (retrospective chart review, mining an established database, etc).