Getting into radiology research as a DO student?

[kelminak]

Hi there,

I'm an M1 at a DO school and extremely interested in radiology. I'd like to get involved in research, but I'm not sure how to find research that is relevant to radiology. My school is in a very rural area and almost 100% of the listed research faculty at my school are doing research related to primary care, OMM, or sports medicine. Does anyone have advice as to where I could look to outside of my school's faculty for projects? Or would being involved in these projects be better than having no research at all and I should just do something unrelated?

Thank you!

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[SpartanWolverine]

Could be tough. Be potentially OMM or sports med might have projects or ideas related to imaging? Another possibility is to try and get hooked in with the radiology folks wherever you'll be doing your clinical rotations but it's likely they're a small private or employed group of people who probably don't do much, if any, research. Something is better than nothing but hopefully you can find something at least peripherally imaging-related!

 

[recycledpaper]

I did a case report with the community radiologist I rotated with as an MS3. It was an interesting case, and I presented it at a couple of local conferences, as well as had it published in Radiology Case Reports. I did not get much help from my attending nor faculty advisor in terms of how I was supposed to write it or even what to do with it after I finished it, but I just followed instructions and asked questions and after one round of edits it was accepted for publishing. As an MS4, I did case reports on my away rotations with residents, and ended up being 2nd author on two case reports.

I had a retrospective project between MS1 and MS2 that I did in trauma surgery with some overlap with imaging. I got asked about this pretty often on my interview trail, despite it being not 100% radiology research, so if that is the only option you have, I would still suggest you get involved with clinical research so you have something to talk about. If you can get a project off, it shows that you have that capability should you decide to do something in radiology as a resident.

 

[TCOM12]

It's a numbers game. Do something, even if it isn't radiology related. Maybe not OMM research (nothing against it, just a ton of allopaths who won't get it). If you can try to get on a case report (as stated above) and get published for ACR case in point, SPR case of the week, etc. Also, see what you can do about doing something over the summer with either private or academic radiologists (PM me and I may be able to hook you up with someone at my previous institution).

Also, if you're in a smaller town, you may want to look at doing some of your clinicals at places with radiology residencies to get some exposure.

Also, you MUST take the USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 to be taken seriously. You must do well on those exams. If not, you're really shooting yourself in the foot (even to DO friendly programs).

 

[kelminak]

It's a numbers game. Do something, even if it isn't radiology related. Maybe not OMM research (nothing against it, just a ton of allopaths who won't get it). If you can try to get on a case report (as stated above) and get published for ACR case in point, SPR case of the week, etc. Also, see what you can do about doing something over the summer with either private or academic radiologists (PM me and I may be able to hook you up with someone at my previous institution).

Also, if you're in a smaller town, you may want to look at doing some of your clinicals at places with radiology residencies to get some exposure.

Also, you MUST take the USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 to be taken seriously. You must do well on those exams. If not, you're really shooting yourself in the foot (even to DO friendly programs).

Thank you so much! This information helps tremendously. For now I'll take your advice and just get involved in any project I can find. I'll PM you with my details about the summer.