Integrating scientific research into primary care

[SweetRain]

Hi everyone,

I'm in the process of filling out my secondaries and I'm in need of advice.
I did a significant amount of medicinal chemistry research as an undergrad and hoping to go into primary care and public health as a physician.

I'm applying to some of the schools that are strongly research oriented and I want to integrate my research experience to my application.
I'm just not very sure how to make a connection between scientific research to primary care. I have no intention of doing any scientific or clinical research in the future at this point.

Any advice?

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[Baron Samedi]

Hi everyone,

I'm in the process of filling out my secondaries and I'm in need of advice.
I did a significant amount of medicinal chemistry research as an undergrad and hoping to go into primary care and public health as a physician.

I'm applying to some of the schools that are strongly research oriented and I want to integrate my research experience to my application.
I'm just not very sure how to make a connection between scientific research to primary care. I have no intention of doing any scientific or clinical research in the future at this point.

Any advice?

Why are you applying to research oriented schools if you don't want to do research? There's more to applying to schools than just location, GPA, and MCAT scores. You need to apply to schools that are a good fit for you.

That said, even if you do not want to do research as a physician, your research as an undergraduate is a valuable experience and one that will be looked at favorably. There's plenty of PCPs who do research. Neuro and Rads aren't the only specialties developing new technologies and treatments.

 

[fishbait63]

I don't really understand your idea... you want to integrate your research and your intentions of being a PCP yet you have no future plans for research....
PCP aren't known to as basic science research but some PCPs researchers

I would explain it simply as I was curious about research but found PCP a better fit because of x reasons then talk about how scientific research has influenced your pursuit of med and why you don't want to pursue research .

The second question I think that should be raised why public health if your not interested in clinical research...?

 

[Catalystik]

Having engaged in research is evidence of your scientific curiosity, a desirable trait in future physicians. I don't think you need more of a link than that. However, didn't medicinal chemistry research give you some insights into pharmaceuticals, the pipeline to developing them, and their potential positive impact on humans?

 

[LizzyM]

IMO, it is all about testable hypotheses. Primary care and public health practitoiners have questions that can be answered through hypothesis although the methods used are often far different than what is used in a medicinal chemistry lab.

Does doing this (something aimed at practioner or patient education, for example) increase the proportion of patients who have a particular desirable outcome?

Since the advent of a particular public health campaign, have we seen a decline in mortality from ___?

 

[ILikeDrugs]

This is a stale idea, but you could look into quality of care
of different groups. There is a current featured article on the SDN front page that involves some PCP research. It deals with homosexuals/transgenders and the quality of primary care that they receive. And that's all I got.

 

[JJMrK]

Hi everyone,

I'm in the process of filling out my secondaries and I'm in need of advice.
I did a significant amount of medicinal chemistry research as an undergrad and hoping to go into primary care and public health as a physician.

I'm applying to some of the schools that are strongly research oriented and I want to integrate my research experience to my application.
I'm just not very sure how to make a connection between scientific research to primary care. I have no intention of doing any scientific or clinical research in the future at this point.

Any advice?

IMO, you don't need to. Doing research fosters understanding of the scientific method, pushes you to build hypotheses regarding difficult concepts, and forces you to troubleshoot complex problems. This is good. Just be sure you can talk intelligently about your work, even to people who are in totally different fields.

 

[SweetRain]

Thanks for all the answers!