Need help choosing a summer research project

[Tollats]

I'm an M1 looking to go into IM, potentially interested in a career in academics doing clinical research.

For a while I've been thinking of getting in touch with senior, well-known faculty involved in prospective research at my school and hopefully working with them, but recently a funded research opportunity doing a retrospective study opened up with a PI who is in the beginning stages of their career. I'm not sure if I would be 100% "in love" with the objectives/topic of the research project, and I also don't know if I would receive the same mentorship/networking that would perhaps be provided by the more senior PI's that I was hoping to work with.

Is it realistic for an M1 to get involved with and publish some sort of prospective/clinical trials work and would faculty even entertain the idea of an M1 working in this field? Or is pursuing a "lower-impact" opportunity more reasonable if I want to set myself up for an academic career? Apologies if any part of this post came off as ignorant as to what clinical research entails; my prior research experience was in Math so I'm not very informed about the feasibility of either of these potential projects.

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[FalconSlice]

I'm an M1 at a T10 school looking to go into IM, potentially interested in a career in academics doing clinical research.

For a while I've been thinking of getting in touch with senior, well-known faculty involved in prospective research at my school and hopefully working with them, but recently a funded research opportunity doing a retrospective study opened up with a PI who is in the beginning stages of their career. I'm not sure if I would be 100% "in love" with the objectives/topic of the research project, and I also don't know if I would receive the same mentorship/networking that would perhaps be provided by the more senior PI's that I was hoping to work with.

Is it realistic for an M1 to get involved with and publish some sort of prospective/clinical trials work and would faculty even entertain the idea of an M1 working in this field? Or is pursuing a "lower-impact" opportunity more reasonable if I want to set myself up for an academic career? Apologies if any part of this post came off as ignorant as to what clinical research entails; my prior research experience was in Math so I'm not very informed about the feasibility of either of these potential projects.

Totally get your predicament, but there always will be great opportunities to do things like this (especially as an M1). However, there are some unanswered questions (not that I'm asking you, but something you should think about) and some thoughts I have:

1. How much work does each entail? Can you mesh it with the rest of your studies without detrimentally affecting your performance?

2. Coming off of #1, why not do both? No one person can fulfill all the needs of mentorship. It's always advisable to have multiple mentors. Also, realize that just because you don't officially work with someone, doesn't mean that you can't be mentored by them.

3. It's great you want to get involved in research and know you're interested in IM now! However, keep in mind things might change drastically especially when you get your Step I score back and/or during M3 year. Who knows--maybe you'll really love ophthalmology or psychiatry or ENT? Basically what I'm saying is that it's great you're doing research, but try not to be too differentiated and committed to one thing... it can be a psychological hurdle later on when you start to love OB or something (not that you seem "too committed" or anything, but just something every M1 should know)

4. Don't think you have to only work with "well-known" faculty members for name-recognition going forward. Mentorship styles and happiness/quality of life matters much much much more than someone's name in one's career success. Of course, networking is a big issue too, but on the off chance that you run into "well-known faculty" that are a******s in the future, don't feel like you need them to succeed.

I'd advise meeting with both of them independently and giving them your best "I love what you do, and I want to do it" (as much as that is true, that is) and also mention that you're also working with Dr. so-and-so as part of your "about me" deal. Neither should care, but it's always best for them to know that you are motivated with other things in your life other than classes. Mind you, I advise that you use these meetings as a "get-to-know-you" meeting as well... talk about your life, ask him/her about his/her's, talk about science, etc.

Little busy now and might amend my post here and there
FS

 

[Goro]

I'm an M1 looking to go into IM, potentially interested in a career in academics doing clinical research.

For a while I've been thinking of getting in touch with senior, well-known faculty involved in prospective research at my school and hopefully working with them, but recently a funded research opportunity doing a retrospective study opened up with a PI who is in the beginning stages of their career. I'm not sure if I would be 100% "in love" with the objectives/topic of the research project, and I also don't know if I would receive the same mentorship/networking that would perhaps be provided by the more senior PI's that I was hoping to work with.

Is it realistic for an M1 to get involved with and publish some sort of prospective/clinical trials work and would faculty even entertain the idea of an M1 working in this field? Or is pursuing a "lower-impact" opportunity more reasonable if I want to set myself up for an academic career? Apologies if any part of this post came off as ignorant as to what clinical research entails; my prior research experience was in Math so I'm not very informed about the feasibility of either of these potential projects.

The best time for research is summer of M1, unless your school has a mandatory thesis component.

i suggest that you talk to all Faculty and see who is willing to take students, see if any of thier research interests match your own.

 

[aldol16]

It's really difficult to have any substantial level of involvement in a clinical trial-based paper as a medical student. If you are involved in one, it will most likely be in a patient recruitment-type role because most RCTs will have a lot of research staff support. When RCTs are designed, there are inputs from every level of the hierarchy, from physicians to PhDs to research coordinators, etc. Basically people who design and run RCTs for a living. This is because an RCT has to be well thought out and everything protocoled before you start (and in many cases, before you can even get funding for it). This isn't something where you might figure out you messed something up or forgot to include a key piece of data in the collection protocol halfway through. It could cost someone a whole lot of money if that happens. So as a med student, when you enter the project it will likely already be underway so the only thing for you to do is recruit patients. After the project ends, they'll likely have a biostatistician on hand to actually analyze the data because that's much faster and more efficient than giving a med student the data and having them figure out which software to use and how to properly do the tests (even if you have a math background).

Now, prospective studies are viable depending on what you're doing. A lot of data is outcomes-based which is totally feasible for a med student. You might have a research question that doesn't require a trial to answer, e.g. you could administer surveys to patients or something like that. That could be done in a prospective manner.

The research area where med students can really be helpful is the retrospective stuff or prospective stuff where the data is already collected. So you might be sifting through a database or charts trying to answer some question and doing your own statistical tests based on your question.

 

[mvenus929]

It's okay to not be 100% in love with the topic of your research. You will still learn a lot from the process that you can apply to your own research later on (if you so choose). The important thing coming out of working on a project is that you can explain what the project is actually doing and how.

Most of the 'research' that medical students get involve with either isn't strictly clinical (think like focus group and social science research, or basic science stuffs), is retrospective, or involves things like case reports. The main reason is that prospective trials can last a really long time, and if you're only there for a couple years to participate in the research, you're not going to have a huge impact on the study. That's not to say it can't happen, it's just rare. My prospective study took me a year to collect data (so I was able to do it during residency), and I would've loved to have a medical student help me out on it. For this reason, working with residents may be more fruitful than working directly with attendings, who are typically doing more large scale projects.