MD Not enthusiastic to play the research game

[Lifeblood_20]

M2 at a decently ranked school (fwiw). Currently interested in DR/IR, Neuro, and surgery, thinking of either a neuro residency, DR residency + IR fellowship, or gen surg residency + surgical subspecialty fellowship. I know that's a wide range of competitiveness but I feel that's where I am right now.

I am doing well with the curriculum and have shadowed a good amount, so I feel comfortable about how everything is going so far, except for "research." I have been working on two projects (an outcomes study in spine surgery and an AI project in neuro imaging) which I am really passionate about. However, they are the kind of projects that take time (collaboration, bureaucracy, large scale, etc) and won't produce multiple abstracts/papers/awards by the time residency application rolls around. I will probably have one or two abstracts and mayyyyybe one paper or two, but I don't see myself having the absurd quantity that's required those days. I absolutely do not feel inclined to just be pumping out abstracts/projects. With my scarce extracurricular time, I'd much prefer to be working on research that I actually like or take care of myself and spend time with loved ones instead of grinding "research." I will say I am totally open to doing a research year after graduation to boost my CV if I do end up deciding on something like Neurosurgery.

Wondering if this lack of enthusiasm to "play the game" is too extreme or unrealistic given my goals. Sometimes it feels like I am the only med student who cares about the quality of research work I am producing as opposed to just having lines on my CV.

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[operaman]

Not at all. If anything, people with an actual passion for research are the ones who actually develop lasting academic research careers.

Ideally you could find ways to spin off smaller papers and presentations from the larger projects you’re already doing. Not sure if that’s feasible but it’s what a lot of people do. Certainly outcomes research is usually easy to do a small little subgroup sort of analysis and turn it into a quick presentation.

A lot depends on your level of involvement in your current projects. If you’re the first author and it gets published in a good journal, that actually looks really good and can balance out a number of fluff middle author papers.

Another trick can be to use some skill you’ve developed from your current work and help out other students with their projects in exchange for middle authorship. A guy in my med school got really good at SEER database queries and any other student that wanted to churn out a quick paper would get him to do the query. He’d spend maybe a couple hours doing it and send them an excel sheet to analyze and write up. He got about 15 pubs plus who knows how many abstracts this way for minimal time investment. Perhaps you could do something similar for people wanting to do AI projects? Depends how good your skills are, but maybe a nice option.

Have you talked to your PI and other mentors about this?

 

[aldol16]

In the most competitive specialties, publications and connections are the name of the game - the latter more so than the former. Research gets you the connections who then make the critical calls for you down the line. Publications are a nice touch and people do care more about the quantity than quality (unless it's a JAMA or NEJM paper - or equivalent for that specialty).

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

i don’t think any of those specialties need research unless you want to go to top programs or do IR directly. Obviously if you do surgery and want a fellowship, Peds surgery, plastics and surgical oncology, as well as CT to a lesser extent, will require research

 

[Lifeblood_20]

Not at all. If anything, people with an actual passion for research are the ones who actually develop lasting academic research careers.

Ideally you could find ways to spin off smaller papers and presentations from the larger projects you’re already doing. Not sure if that’s feasible but it’s what a lot of people do. Certainly outcomes research is usually easy to do a small little subgroup sort of analysis and turn it into a quick presentation.

A lot depends on your level of involvement in your current projects. If you’re the first author and it gets published in a good journal, that actually looks really good and can balance out a number of fluff middle author papers.

Another trick can be to use some skill you’ve developed from your current work and help out other students with their projects in exchange for middle authorship. A guy in my med school got really good at SEER database queries and any other student that wanted to churn out a quick paper would get him to do the query. He’d spend maybe a couple hours doing it and send them an excel sheet to analyze and write up. He got about 15 pubs plus who knows how many abstracts this way for minimal time investment. Perhaps you could do something similar for people wanting to do AI projects? Depends how good your skills are, but maybe a nice option.

Have you talked to your PI and other mentors about this?

Thanks for the great reply as always. I appreciate the ideas.
I think it ultimately comes down to a lack of time on my part. I admit I am not the most efficient medical student at studying so most of my time goes to academics (as I know it should). So I am still working on pulling enough data for the outcomes research and that is still going to take a while. The same goes for the AI project; it is taking some time to build and for me to develop the skills that I may use for other projects. I enjoy doing the work so far and am excited about the research directions but am slow to get far enough along where I can spin smaller papers off.