Is it ok if I do research and publish in a specialty I may not go into?

[and 99 others]

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I will be doing a research fellowship before medical school and am interested in doing clinical research in a surgical field. I am not totally sure what specialty I want to go into in the future, but if I were to do research in, say, a neurosurgery lab, and publish in that field, would that look odd if I hypothetically applied for a different surgical specialty or even a non-surgical field. If it wouldn't reflect poorly, would it help my application if I had that degree and publications in the different field?

 

[slowthai]

Wouldn't hurt at all. It would help to an extent because any pub is good. But it wouldn't help show commitment to your field of choice; in which case you would have to have pubs specific to that field of course. This will also help to prevent people from thinking that the field you switched to is being used as a backup if it happens to be significantly less competitive than the field you did your research fellowship in.

 

[aSagacious]

Not a big deal at all. People switch late all the time. As above, just provide demonstrated interest (away rotations, LoRs, pubs) in your eventual specialty as soon as you decide.

 

[ewax]

Performing any kind of research from start to finish (regardless of in your field or not) shows that you understand the scientific process and have developed research skills. As long as you can speak intelligently about your research during interviews, you should have no problems.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

Entirely fine. My first research experience before medical school was in astrochemistry. In fact, in some ways having an out-of-specialty project gives you something unique to talk about. If you can somehow connect your experiences there to your later work in your field, then that is an awesome CV move.

David D, MD - USMLE and MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[Redpancreas]

Better to do a process right and show you know how to get things done than get cherry-picked to be on a project based on who you know that's relevant to your field of interest. That said, I can't guarantee admissions/recruitment committees can see through the latter anymore given than everyone seems to do it...but do it for yourself OP.

 

[odyssey2]

The only specialties that might have a problem with it are the ultra competitive ones like derm, Ortho, or plastics, but if it’s early enough in your career and you eventually shift to specialty-specific research it probably won’t hurt even in those fields.

 

[Domepiece]

You are literally not even in medical school yet, no one has any expectation of you knowing what specialty you will apply to. No, it will not reflect poorly.

Learn about the process of doing research. Find a team you think you would enjoy working with and has published at most in the last 2 years. Getting your name on some outcome (abstracts/pres/pubs) is a plus, but also remember that often authorship and the ultimate success of a project is multifactorial so do not be disheartened if you don't get anything "tangible" out of it. Good luck!

 

[Banco]

Hold up, you're not even in med school? just do what you like...