Med and Research - Whats the theory?

[Haybrant]

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Hi, I posted this in the pre-allo earlier and realized that what i needed was people that are in med school and beyond to help with my question:

>Anyone have any thoughts on how doing research can make one a more competent physician. Why do med schools value research during undergrad years and encourage students to research during med school? How will it help to be a better physician? It seems like you get so focused on one pathway that is so specific and may not help when you see patients with so many >different problems. Whats the theory here; any thoughts?

 

[jbish]

Hi, I posted this in the pre-allo earlier and realized that what i needed was people that are in med school and beyond to help with my question:

>Anyone have any thoughts on how doing research can make one a more competent physician. Why do med schools value research during undergrad years and encourage students to research during med school? How will it help to be a better physician? It seems like you get so focused on one pathway that is so specific and may not help when you see patients with so many >different problems. Whats the theory here; any thoughts?

I think encouraging research stems from the fact that if medical doctors didn't do research we'd never get new drugs/surgical techniques/treatments. MDs are involved in most clinical trials which help get new treatments out to patients. Showing a commitment to research (even nonclinical kinds) shows to adcoms that you are interested in helping the field of medicine get better and excel and not just help individual people but do something that could affect the entire population.

 

[doc05]

not exactly. medicine is all about memorizing crap without any real critical thinking. it's about using information that other people figured out. by doing research, you are proving that you can do some original thinking, or at least have an idea of what it's all about.

mostly though, research is something to add to your CV. obviously, the more publications you list, the more "impressive" it seems, even though 90% of what's in "peer-reviewed" journals is nothing but crap.

 

[pikachu]

Agree with both posters above; I think it also has to do with the academic environment which requires you to be prepared to do at least some research. Most residency positions are at academic hospitals and many of them have a research requirement for completion of the residency. Faculty at medical schools are in a publish or perish environment in terms of grants, promotions, etc. so it is helpful to become familiar with research early.

Although it's true that there are a lot of stupid/biased/recycled articles in the journals, research is what drives progress in the medical field and I think we need more good/rigorous research to improve practice. especially when there are so many conflicting studies out there, it doesn't seem like certain questions will ever be resolved (see this week's JAMA study on statins) -

 

[carrigallen]

Medicine in general is becoming more research-oriented. Evidence-Based medicine, the golden age of biotech, and breakthroughs in our molecular understanding of disease are all integral to medicine now.

I think that it is no longer possible for physicians to sit by the sidelines and perform procedures the same way they learned them as residents. Most surgeons will agree that 90% of the procedures they do now did not exist ten years ago.

So if you don't think research is in your plan, think again. Most academic specialty residencies prefer students with a background in research; many hospital appointments are dependent upon grants.

And if the future doesn't appeal to you, just look at Step I. It is becoming more research-oriented, with more molecular biology questions and even some questions about benchtop laboratory work.

 

[whispers]

The things that you learned first and second year was once someone's research project from the underlying disease mechanisms to the drugs prescribed. Third and Fourth year too ie evidence based medicine.

 

[Mumpu]

I would argue that medicine involves a lot of thinking and applications of knowledge, in some cases more than research (I have a lot of background in bench research... most of what you do is so mind-numbing that radiology begins to look like a day at the beach).

Research brings schools money and fame and US News rankings. Occasionally it advances medicine. Not infrequently it sets it back decades (ALLHAT anyone?).

 

[Haybrant]

hey, thanks for the responses. Could someone talk a bit more about what is considered evidence-based medicine? Does this refer to deciding what to prescribe to patients based on the results of clinical trials? Also, could someone talk about what is meant by translational research. Thanks!

 

[Adcadet]

hey, thanks for the responses. Could someone talk a bit more about what is considered evidence-based medicine? Does this refer to deciding what to prescribe to patients based on the results of clinical trials? Also, could someone talk about what is meant by translational research. Thanks!

For some background on EBM (EBP) se this site: http://www.cche.net/usersguides/main.asp. A quick quote:

A new paradigm for medical practice is emerging. Evidence-based medicine de-emphasizes intuition, unsystematic clinical experience, and pathophysiologic rationale as sufficient grounds for clinical decision-making, and stresses the examination of evidence from clinical research. Evidence-based medicine requires new skills of the physician, including efficient literature-searching, and the application of formal rules of evidence in evaluating the clinical literature.

An important goal of our medical residency program is to educate physicians in the practice of evidence-based medicine. Strategies include a weekly formal academic half-day for residents, devoted to learning the necessary skills; recruitment into teaching roles of physicians who practice evidence-based medicine; sharing among faculty of approaches to teaching evidence-based medicine; and providing faculty with feedback on their performance as role-models and teachers of evidence-based medicine.

The influence of evidence-based medicine on clinical practice and medical education is increasing.

 

[Adcadet]

Translational research is all about brining scientific knowledge to patient care. It is often what is mean by "from bench to bedside," although I've been warned by a Academic Health Center PR person to avoid that phrase with non-medical folks as they tend to be confused about what a bench has to do with medicine. I don't know of a great TR site - try Google.