How important are primary articles instead of just case reports and review articles for matching?

[swaggy1090]

Hey guys, so I am a little, but hopefully not too late to the derm train. I am 2 months into M3 year ( we start in April), which I believe gives me about 14ish months from now before ERAS. For background, I have 260 Step 1, and mostly high pass/honors M1-M2 year at a mid tier (top 50) institution.

I was thinking of going into oncology before, and so I am first author on a colon cancer review article, first author on a primary article for colon cancer, as well as like 3rd author on a pancreatic cancer review article and pancreatic cancer primary article. I also am giving a 10-15 minute powerpoint presentation later in the year at a national oncology conference. I met with the dermatologist at my school who helps to get med students involved in the department, and have been going to after hours volunteer clinics with them as well as ground rounds. She hooked me up with a case report that I am putting the finishing touches on, and I should also be an author on a review article pretty soon. Due to only having just over a year to get my resume finished, I am worried I won't have time to finish a primary research article before ERAS is due. My oncology ones took like 15-16 months once all was said and done with finishing the study, getting collaborators to review it, and then going through peer review. Given my step score and research in other fields, would a bunch of case reports and some review articles cut it, or is doing a primary derm article almost a pre req to match? I'm hoping to avoid taking a year off if possible. Also, I think my school has a pretty good derm department, we typically match 2-5 students a year in derm somewhere, and the school takes a lot of its own.

Thanks in advance

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[asmallchild]

Hey guys, so I am a little, but hopefully not too late to the derm train. I am 2 months into M3 year ( we start in April), which I believe gives me about 14ish months from now before ERAS. For background, I have 260 Step 1, and mostly high pass/honors M1-M2 year at a mid tier (top 50) institution.

I was thinking of going into oncology before, and so I am first author on a colon cancer review article, first author on a primary article for colon cancer, as well as like 3rd author on a pancreatic cancer review article and pancreatic cancer primary article. I also am giving a 10-15 minute powerpoint presentation later in the year at a national oncology conference. I met with the dermatologist at my school who helps to get med students involved in the department, and have been going to after hours volunteer clinics with them as well as ground rounds. She hooked me up with a case report that I am putting the finishing touches on, and I should also be an author on a review article pretty soon. Due to only having just over a year to get my resume finished, I am worried I won't have time to finish a primary research article before ERAS is due. My oncology ones took like 15-16 months once all was said and done with finishing the study, getting collaborators to review it, and then going through peer review. Given my step score and research in other fields, would a bunch of case reports and some review articles cut it, or is doing a primary derm article almost a pre req to match? I'm hoping to avoid taking a year off if possible. Also, I think my school has a pretty good derm department, we typically match 2-5 students a year in derm somewhere, and the school takes a lot of its own.

Thanks in advance

Given your Step 1 score and your prolific research in oncology, I wouldn't say a primary article is a pre req to match. If all you can get done is a bunch of case reports and review articles, that's fine. But yes, ideally, primary articles are typically recognized as more meaningful (and it's also understood they take more time to get published)

I would get linked in with your home department as soon as possible to see if there are any research projects you can assist with. Good luck!