Good place for a research elective?

[Toadkiller Dog]

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Does anyone know a good place to do a (roughly) 4-week ophtho research elective during the 4th year?

Would especially be interested in non-big city places (ie, not NY or LA).

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Originally posted by Toadkiller Dog
Does anyone know a good place to do a (roughly) 4-week ophtho research elective during the 4th year?

Would especially be interested in non-big city places (ie, not NY or LA).

Four weeks is not enough time for a research elective. You're better off taking one year off for research or spend four weeks doing an ophthalmology elective. You can always try to write up a case report during your four week ophthalmology elective. For example, one of the visiting students worked with me on a case report of GBS endogenous endophthalmitis.

 

[Toadkiller Dog]

Hmmmm.......

Both UVA and MCV have 4 week elective ophthalmology research rotations listed for 4th year students.

Unfortunately, we can only do 2 electives in a given specialty and mine are taken (home +1 away), but we can do a 3rd in research, which is why I'm looking.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Originally posted by Toadkiller Dog
Hmmmm.......

Both UVA and MCV have 4 week elective ophthalmology research rotations listed for 4th year students.

Unfortunately, we can only do 2 electives in a given specialty and mine are taken (home +1 away), but we can do a 3rd in research, which is why I'm looking.

Many programs offer 4-week research rotations, but I think 4 weeks is not enough time to do research. You may be able to do a small chart review, but beyond that, it's hard to accomplish anything.

I did a 4-week research rotation too, but I didn't get much done.

 

[Visionary]

What Andrew means is that you can't do any substantive research in a four week span. You might be able to get your name on a poster/pub, but only as a token. If you want to say you really did something, do a case report as Andrew suggests. It will be a broad learning experience on a relatively specific subject and will provide you a topic you can discuss with some degree of expertise on the interview trail. Taking a year off to do research is a little extreme, unless you're REALLY interested in research.

There are 4 week research electives to be had, no doubt. To be honest, I did one; however, I was working with my old grad school advisor, so I pretty much picked up on a project I had worked on as a doctoral student. The learning curve is just too shallow, if you aren't already familiar with the lab/project.

Best of luck!