How important is anesthesiology-specific research for a residency application?

[forest_hermit]

Hi all,

• I am an M1 with a prior master's degree.
• I'm strongly leaning towards anesthesiology as a specialty.
• I've been doing research for the last couple months with a professor (PHD) in the radiology / neurology department.
• I'm set to publish a paper by December, as the first author. It is MRI / multiple sclerosis research.
• The position is great, I love the research I do, I get paid for the position, I have weekly meetings with the professor and learn a lot.
• I would ideally like to continue doing research with this professor M1-M4, and publish a lot more under him.

However...

• Everyone and their mother is telling me that anesthesiology is getting more competitive
• My counselor recommended that I quit my current research position and pursue research with an anesthesiologist.

So...

• I've been in contact with the research director for the anesthesiology group that my school's hospital contracts.
• He's offered me a position with a ton of autonomy and leadership.
• However, I have a feeling that I wouldn't get a close working relationship with a PI like I would like, plus their group's research department feels a lot less established. That is to say, I feel like I will have more quality and quantity of publications with my current PI than this group.

The question:
How important is anesthesiology-specific research for a competitive residency application to anesthesiology?

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[kidthor]

It probably doesn't matter. But it'd be good if you could somehow sell why/how you're going into anesthesia and not neuro and be prepared to think you may be double applying. It all might make sense if you wanted to go into pain or critical care, in a way.

I keep seeing these stats that all these applicants have first author papers and the like - but in reality when I've reviewed residency applicants it's extremely rare for any of them to do any actual research in anesthesia (if anything maybe they have a middle author on a random paper they were involved with in undergrad or something).

Not too long ago there was a paper looking at academic output of faculty at academic institutions - and the median number of publications per year was ZERO. Which is to say that research and publications in anesthesiology isn't robust or expected at all.

It'd be good if you could churn out an interesting case report for an ASA meeting (which is easy enough to do if you're motivated).

 

[forest_hermit]

It probably doesn't matter. But it'd be good if you could somehow sell why/how you're going into anesthesia and not neuro and be prepared to think you may be double applying. It all might make sense if you wanted to go into pain or critical care, in a way.

I keep seeing these stats that all these applicants have first author papers and the like - but in reality when I've reviewed residency applicants it's extremely rare for any of them to do any actual research in anesthesia (if anything maybe they have a middle author on a random paper they were involved with in undergrad or something).

Not too long ago there was a paper looking at academic output of faculty at academic institutions - and the median number of publications per year was ZERO. Which is to say that research and publications in anesthesiology isn't robust or expected at all.

It'd be good if you could churn out an interesting case report for an ASA meeting (which is easy enough to do if you're motivated).

Thank you! I'll probably stay with my current PI, and gear future projects towards topics that may have some overlap with pain medicine.
How would I go about generating a case report? Maybe something I shouldn't worry about until clinical rotations?

 

[nimbus]

So...

• I've been in contact with the research director for the anesthesiology group that my school's hospital contracts.
• He's offered me a position with a ton of autonomy and leadership.
• However, I have a feeling that I wouldn't get a close working relationship with a PI like I would like, plus their group's research department feels a lot less established. That is to say, I feel like I will have more quality and quantity of publications with my current PI than this group.

The question:
How important is anesthesiology-specific research for a competitive residency application to anesthesiology?

These concerns are valid. You may be giving up a position with a productive, well established, well funded lab for nothing. It’s easy enough to do a literature search of the anesthesia research director’s output. Does the research director have competitive grant funding? They may be offering leadership and autonomy because they don’t have any ongoing projects. Then at least you will know what to expect. Outside of a handful of institutions, there is not much real anesthesia research happening nowadays. If you really want anesthesia research, it may be better to hook up with a more established lab at one of those institutions. And basic cardiology, pulmonary and critical care research can segue nicely with anesthesia.

 

[forest_hermit]

These concerns are valid. You may be giving up a position with a productive, well established, well funded lab for nothing. It’s easy enough to do a literature search of the anesthesia research director’s output. Does the research director have competitive grant funding? They may be offering leadership and autonomy because they don’t have any ongoing projects. Then at least you will know what to expect. Outside of a handful of institutions, there is not much real anesthesia research happening nowadays. If you really want anesthesia research, it may be better to hook up with a more established lab at one of those institutions. And basic cardiology, pulmonary and critical care research can segue nicely with anesthesia.

Thank you for the good advice. After looking up the professor on PubMed / Google Scholar, I can see his research output is much lower than the PI I am with now. It would probably be more wise to stay where I am, for now. It seems my school and hospitals in the area don't really do good anesthesia research.

Framing it in terms of my original question, I'm guessing anesthesia-specific research is not more important than the quality and quantity of the research being done.

I did my previous education at a university with world-class anesthesia and consciousness research. I could try to reach out to do research with professors that I've taken classes with in the anesthesia department in the past.

However, if quality anesthesia research is as scarce as you say, there likely aren't too many other medical students interested in anesthesiology actually doing specialty-specific research. So is this even worth worrying about?

I'll stick where I am and try to work with my PI to frame future projects around pain or critical care topics. And is it totally unbelievable that someone with a passion for anesthesiology would also have an interest in neurology? It's all neuroscience, after all.

 

[kidthor]

So is this even worth worrying about?

No.

 

[Anesthesia_Guy]

Jesus kid that's 4 years away. Given the cyclical nature of anesthesiology, you'll probably just need a pulse (like I did) to get a residency spot. I look at some of the statistics now and thank my lucky stars I got in when I did. Bottom 1/3 of class, no research, mediocre board scores, no honors, no research, no nothing. Scrambled into a top 20 program (whatever that means).

 

[forest_hermit]

Jesus kid that's 4 years away. Given the cyclical nature of anesthesiology, you'll probably just need a pulse (like I did) to get a residency spot. I look at some of the statistics now and thank my lucky stars I got in when I did. Bottom 1/3 of class, no research, mediocre board scores, no honors, no research, no nothing. Scrambled into a top 20 program (whatever that means).

Thank you for not enabling my neuroticism!

 

[sakata8242]

When I reviewed applications for our program, about 90% had some research experience listed. Honestly I couldn't give a ****, but if an applicant puts research on their application then it's fair game to the interviewer. I would always ask them about their research - you could glean a lot of information based on their response whether it was just application padding or something legitimate. If applicants went so far as to get letters from their research mentors, I cared more about whether the letter was personal and could shed more light on the applicant, or if it was just a cookie cutter one where the writer couldn't even be bothered to change the gender of the pronouns being used (yes, I actually saw one of those).

The fact that your research isn't directly anesthesia related is less important than being able to show a long term commitment to your project and having a mentor who can speak to your character on a personal level.

 

[forest_hermit]

When I reviewed applications for our program, about 90% had some research experience listed. Honestly I couldn't give a ****, but if an applicant puts research on their application then it's fair game to the interviewer. I would always ask them about their research - you could glean a lot of information based on their response whether it was just application padding or something legitimate. If applicants went so far as to get letters from their research mentors, I cared more about whether the letter was personal and could shed more light on the applicant, or if it was just a cookie cutter one where the writer couldn't even be bothered to change the gender of the pronouns being used (yes, I actually saw one of those).

The fact that your research isn't directly anesthesia related is less important than being able to show a long term commitment to your project and having a mentor who can speak to your character on a personal level.

That is very reassuring to hear, thank you

 

[<(^_^)>]

Anesthesiology is definitely getting more competitive but it’s still a very understanding field with regard to field-specific research.

Does your medical school have a home program for anesthesiology? The biggest advantage in doing research within your department is becoming a known quality. It is astonishing how important putting a face to a name is. For better or worse, we like helping people we know.

 

[forest_hermit]

Anesthesiology is definitely getting more competitive but it’s still a very understanding field with regard to field-specific research.

Does your medical school have a home program for anesthesiology? The biggest advantage in doing research within your department is becoming a known quality. It is astonishing how important putting a face to a name is. For better or worse, we like helping people we know.

I just recently reached out to a few anesthesiologists at hospitals we are affiliated with asking for mentorship and shadowing. Unfortunately, the anesthesiology research at all of these institutions are minimal. Hopefully shadowing is a good way to get my name out there.