Does Clinical Research Count As Clinical Experience?

[IWant2BeADoctor]

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I have 1 year to volunteer and get as much medically related Extracurricular activities as I can. Because I only recently decided on going Pre-Med.

Does Clinical Research Count As Clinical Experience?

 

[QofQuimica]

I have 1 year to volunteer and get as much medically related Extracurricular activities as I can. Because I only recently decided on going Pre-Med.

Does Clinical Research Count As Clinical Experience?

What exactly were you doing? In my case, it was counted as research, not clinical experience. You should probably get some additional clinical experience just to be safe unless you were doing procedures or otherwise spending time working with physicians.

 

[nick_carraway]

What exactly were you doing? In my case, it was counted as research, not clinical experience. You should probably get some additional clinical experience just to be safe unless you were doing procedures or otherwise spending time working with physicians.

What do you mean that it was classified as research? You mean the adcoms disagreed with your classification or AMCAS changed it for you?

I have a clinical research job for my gap year that I REALLY want to be considered clinical exp.

 

[uhohspaghettio]

What do you mean that it was classified as research? You mean the adcoms disagreed with your classification or AMCAS changed it for you?

I have a clinical research job for my gap year that I REALLY want to be considered clinical exp.

It depends on whether or not you have a LOT of patient contact

 

[nick_carraway]

Oh phew okay! Thanks.

How would it be classified under research then? If you just sit in a cubicle in a hospital and data mine most of the time? Hopefully my boss got my drift when I said I want patient contact.

 

[LizzyM]

The big quesiton will be, does the adcom member who is looking at your application think that you have had clinical experience. This varies by adcom member and my even vary over time in an individual adcom member through interaction with peers and the Dean and other administrative personnel.

Is the research subject a patient?... is research "patient care" or is it research? Clinical research can look a lot like medical care or it can be nothing like medical care and you throw in the "therapeutic misconception" (research subjects confuse their role as a subject in a research study with getting treatment as a patient) and you have a very confusing picture.

 

[uhohspaghettio]

Oh phew okay! Thanks.

How would it be classified under research then? If you just sit in a cubicle in a hospital and data mine most of the time? Hopefully my boss got my drift when I said I want patient contact.

It depends on how you embellish it. Make it sound like you did research work (investigation and critical evaluation of test results) and had many patient contacts. I read some people's PS statement... I know what they did, and it wasnt much, but the way they embellished in their essays was 👍
how you embellish and elaborate it is going to make this experience look awesome or not. If you describe this activity the way you are doing it now, then it looks 👎.

Say something like: " After carefully analyzing pharmaceutical records, reading articles about the effectiveness of XXX drugs, and getting patient-feedbacks firsthand, I was able to critically examine and interpret results. It was blah blah... "

If you published something: Add also,

" After thorough investigation of blah blah results, I wrote a paper saying this and that. This paper was published and I was the first/second author"


👍

 

[nick_carraway]

Is the research subject a patient?... is research "patient care" or is it research? Clinical research can look a lot like medical care or it can be nothing like medical care and you throw in the "therapeutic misconception" (research subjects confuse their role as a subject in a research study with getting treatment as a patient) and you have a very confusing picture.

Regarding the therapeutic misconception, if patients are studied but get no treatment out of the study, then would that still be considered clinical exp? Or are you just trying to describe the ambiguity with the definition in general?

BTW, Lizzy, it's good to have you wandering around the forum more now that the ADCOM thread has been retired. It's great to get your opinions in all these threads since we never know when you're going to pop up!

As for uhohspaghettio, I don't have that job yet so it won't be going on my primary at all. Hopefully it doesn't end up being the way that I described it because I won't be very happy doing it for a whole year. And I'm not getting paid, either!

 

[uhohspaghettio]

And not getting paid, either!

That sucks!

 

[LizzyM]

Regarding the therapeutic misconception, if patients are studied but get no treatment out of the study, then would that still be considered clinical exp? Or are you just trying to describe the ambiguity with the definition in general?

Therapeutic misconception refers to the phenomenon by which patients who are invited to enroll in clinical trials that test new and unproven therapies (most often against a placebo) believe that they will be helped by the study drug and disregard the probability that they will be assigned to placebo. They do not see what they are doing as participation in an experiment but rather an offer of a new treatment for their condition. They often believe the the new drug will be of benefit to them (although the only way to do an ethically designed study is to be at a point where you have equipoise, that is to say you don't know (haven't proven) that the new drug is better than the existing therapy for this disorder).

 

[uhohspaghettio]

Therapeutic misconception refers to the phenomenon by which patients who are invited to enroll in clinical trials that test new and unproven therapies (most often against a placebo) believe that they will be helped by the study drug and disregard the probability that they will be assigned to placebo. They do not see what they are doing as participation in an experiment but rather an offer of a new treatment for their condition. They often believe the the new drug will be of benefit to them (although the only way to do an ethically designed study is to be at a point where you have equipoise, that is to say you don't know (haven't proven) that the new drug is better than the existing therapy for this disorder).

So, if you are involved in this type of project, what do adcoms think?

 

[LizzyM]

So, if you are involved in this type of project, what do adcoms think?

It depends on what you are doing and how you explain it in relationship to your career plans and in light of your other activities.