Need help describing clinical research project in secondary

[MareNostrummm]

Hi everyone,

I'm working on filling out secondaries right now and a lot of schools are asking what my plans are during the 2017-2018 year before I would matriculate into medical school. I want to talk about a clinical research project that I've been volunteering on at a local medical school (started in February 2017).

The research project is looking at the effectiveness of certain procedures in the emergency department, I can go into details via PM. (I got onto the project because I worked as a medical scribe for the MD/PhD and I was interested in his emergency medicine research). Anyway, my only real tasks have been:

1. Shadowing during procedures (not much else I can do).
2. Conduct a literature review (so we can cite the relevant articles) and write the manuscript (I've been given access to all the excel sheets, data, IRB application etc. I meet with the PI to discuss articles and help to determine secondary outcomes of the procedures (if we have enough power to look at BMI, gender, pain levels, etc).

In exchange, I get to have my name as a coauthor on the paper when it is eventually published.

Anyway, I'm almost done writing the draft of my paper, which my PI and I will edit. However, we're continuing to enroll patients into the Fall (although the results might change slightly the data we already have is significant so I can write the paper with what we have), but I won't have anything tangible until next year. I'll be on this project all the way until I matriculate into med school (hopefully in August 2018).

Can anyone advise me the best way to describe my contribution to the project, without just saying "hey I'm writing a paper" which is meaningless.. because I won't be published anyway till next year. Is it not even worth mentioning? For the record, I'm not trying to pad my application, because I already have a year of basic science research in a neuroscience lab and I have over 2000 hours working as a scribe in the ED. I wanted to get into clinical research because I was curious about ways to improve effectiveness and efficiency of treatment in the ED, and I'm interested in academic medicine. Should I just talk about what I have learned from the project, on the secondary, and how I want to be involved in research as a physician? I feel like I would be able to passionately talk about the research in interviews as well. @Goro @LizzyM @gyngyn @gonnif

Thanks!

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[LizzyM]

tag it as "research"
give yourself the title "research assistant". List the PI as your contact.
describe your role in the research (do you really only watch or do you record data? just watching doesn't seem essential to the study and you could just as well leave it out as it doesn't contribute to the reserach effort) by filling in the blank: "I am a volunteer responsible for...." and end with "manuscript in progress".
Put the end date as 7/2018.

Did you have any role in hypothesis testing, data management, etc? Are subjects consented for research? Do you have any role in that process?

 

[MareNostrummm]

tag it as "research"
give yourself the title "research assistant". List the PI as your contact.
describe your role in the research (do you really only watch or do you record data? just watching doesn't seem essential to the study and you could just as well leave it out as it doesn't contribute to the reserach effort) by filling in the blank: "I am a volunteer responsible for...." and end with "manuscript in progress".
Put the end date as 7/2018.

Did you have any role in hypothesis testing, data management, etc? Are subjects consented for research? Do you have any role in that process?

My only role at the moment is writing the manuscript with the data that we already have. I've read the majority of the relevant articles and I've been discussing them with the PI, he wants me to put my ideas in the discussion and to look at the data to see if there are any secondary outcomes that we can add besides the original hypothesis (that most of the procedures are ineffective). So basically my role in the research is to analyze the data and write the paper, and the PI will edit it. I can ask for more duties because I will be on this project until next year but that is all I am doing as of right now.

We have 20 patients so far, but we plan on having at least 40 before completing the project. I was only able to watch 2 procedures (no data collection or handing patient's consent forms). The reason why I don't have more involvement in data collection is because the patients are a convenience sample and only present to the ED sporadically (they also need to meet certain conditions to qualify for the procedure), so I can't just sit around the ED waiting for the right patient to come in, and its not as simple as a retrospective chart review or scheduling patients. When the appropriate patient comes in the PI or someone from the team is quickly called to the ED to record the data. I live too far away from the hospital to be able to do that consistently.