ENT research for med students

[nancy0223]

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This is another MS1 strongly interested in going into ENT. Knowing that I'll be facing loads of competitions, I've recently started contacting attendings in the ENT department at my school, looking for some research opportunities. And I was offered by an attending the opportunity to take part in a phase III NIH trial that'd be completed in 2-3 yrs . Because I never had any experience of being involved in a national RCT, I'm not sure how much time will I need to dedicate to the project and how valuable it'd look on my residency appl 2 yrs from now. Or should I just look for a short clinical project doable in a few months to a year?
Although research is important, I'd also like to make sure that I nail the Step I by spending tons of time studying for it in my 2nd year. I'm very unsure about whether I should pass up on this NIH opportunity. Since there're lots of ppl who have successfully matched into ENT and are currently residents/attendings here, I'd really appreciate it if someone could advise me on this situation. Thanks very much for your help.

 

[ZagDoc]

This is another MS1 strongly interested in going into ENT. Knowing that I'll be facing loads of competitions, I've recently started contacting attendings in the ENT department at my school, looking for some research opportunities. And I was offered by an attending the opportunity to take part in a phase III NIH trial that'd be completed in 2-3 yrs . Because I never had any experience of being involved in a national RCT, I'm not sure how much time will I need to dedicate to the project and how valuable it'd look on my residency appl 2 yrs from now. Or should I just look for a short clinical project doable in a few months to a year?
Although research is important, I'd also like to make sure that I nail the Step I by spending tons of time studying for it in my 2nd year. I'm very unsure about whether I should pass up on this NIH opportunity. Since there're lots of ppl who have successfully matched into ENT and are currently residents/attendings here, I'd really appreciate it if someone could advise me on this situation. Thanks very much for your help.

Take the opportunity. Have a discussion with the PI about how much you're expected/expecting to contribute time-wise before beginning and you'll be able to plan your other commitments accordingly. As long as expectations are laid out before-hand, you're less likely to find yourself trapped in a time suck. But being able to participate in some NIH research is a cool opportunity that will be unique for your CV come application time for residency and be a great topic of discussion at your interviews.

If you're really concerned about getting a pub or two as well, you can always tackle a smaller project or case report later. I got two relatively simple clinical studies going now as a MS3 and it's doable even with rotations.

Really, research in med school is more about quality than quantity. Programs are less concerned about what you study than the experience you gain. They want residents that are sufficiently seasoned in research that they can competently jump into a study or two while they're training. An experience working on a "big-time" study like a national RCT is awesome because those are the movers and shakers for shaping how we practice.

 

[jsong812]

Take the opportunity. Have a discussion with the PI about how much you're expected/expecting to contribute time-wise before beginning and you'll be able to plan your other commitments accordingly. As long as expectations are laid out before-hand, you're less likely to find yourself trapped in a time suck. But being able to participate in some NIH research is a cool opportunity that will be unique for your CV come application time for residency and be a great topic of discussion at your interviews.

If you're really concerned about getting a pub or two as well, you can always tackle a smaller project or case report later. I got two relatively simple clinical studies going now as a MS3 and it's doable even with rotations.

Really, research in med school is more about quality than quantity. Programs are less concerned about what you study than the experience you gain. They want residents that are sufficiently seasoned in research that they can competently jump into a study or two while they're training. An experience working on a "big-time" study like a national RCT is awesome because those are the movers and shakers for shaping how we practice.

I agree totally. It seems like you have a very unique opportunity to participate in a study that has a lot of promise. I'm not sure what the experience of others on this forum have been, but I've had a difficult time finding a PI who was willing to let me work with them on a few projects. Perhaps this is just a problem in the ENT dept. at my school, but I would really try to take advantage of it. One thing I've learned about research is that it's really about being at the right place at the right time. Opportunities won't always be there but if you happen to be the lucky one in whom that opportunity falls on, you should make the most of it. And as ZagDoc already said, if all else fails, you can always find a small case report during your MS3/MS4 year.