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The Last Ankibender

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Way back when I started my journey into ortho, I skipped classes 1st and 2nd year to go to ortho grand rounds. Met folks. Got to do some research and scrub in. Learned a lot.
I’ve been an orthopedic attending for 14 years now and am chief of surgery at a community hospital. 5 ft tall and 107 lbs. I was 30 when I started med school.
I knew when I applied to med school that I was going ortho. Was a mechanical engineer. Work with wood, metal and fixed classic cars for entertainment.
Would not consider myself an athlete, but when applying to residency, could probably do more door jamb pull-ups than the “athletic bros” (being a small person who used to do a lot of rock climbing).
Although not a bro (have not watched a super bowl in like 20 years), I guess I wasn’t a regular gal, either.
Think about why you like ortho, what might make you good at it and don’t let non-ortho folks be discouraging.
Many are called, few are chosen. But the chosen aren’t necessarily who you think they would be. Fred Astaire was once dismissed as someone who “can't act, can't sing, balding, can dance a little” and therefore not show biz material.
And like we say in climbing, strength is no substitute for technique, but you can’t be weak.
 
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I'm an M1 at a DO school, that had a decent amount of ortho matches last year. Getting started in research this month, is it important that it is ortho-related research? I'm pretty interested in ortho as I know a few ortho surgeons and shadowing their practice/meeting them made me see myself as possibly going into it.

The research I'm jumping in on is cardiology related, is it going to be a lot more beneficial if I make sure my research stuff from here on out is mostly ortho stuff ? (sorry to hijack OP thread just think the answer would help OP too).

I've heard that research is research to residency programs and the opposite, that specialized research benefits you a ton in the specific specialty you're applying to so IDK. Obviously not 100% on ortho yet, so if I ever am does that mean go ham on only ortho research or hop on whatever projects I can.

I hear that quantity>quality to residency programs in terms of research lol but hope someone can clear this up.
 
RLNTLS_OTOD said:
I'm an M1 at a DO school, that had a decent amount of ortho matches last year. Getting started in research this month, is it important that it is ortho-related research? I'm pretty interested in ortho as I know a few ortho surgeons and shadowing their practice/meeting them made me see myself as possibly going into it.

The research I'm jumping in on is cardiology related, is it going to be a lot more beneficial if I make sure my research stuff from here on out is mostly ortho stuff ? (sorry to hijack OP thread just think the answer would help OP too).

I've heard that research is research to residency programs and the opposite, that specialized research benefits you a ton in the specific specialty you're applying to so IDK. Obviously not 100% on ortho yet, so if I ever am does that mean go ham on only ortho research or hop on whatever projects I can.

I hear that quantity>quality to residency programs in terms of research lol but hope someone can clear this up.
Click to expand...

Ortho research > other fields
Quality > quantity (1 JBJS pub > 5 indian journal of gastroenterology)
 
DNC127 said:
Ortho research > other fields
Quality > quantity (1 JBJS pub > 5 indian journal of gastroenterology)
Click to expand...
I seem to hear conflicting opinions on the quality vs quantity debate. Some say that since it’s generally hard for a med student to produce JBJS quality work in such a relatively short time span, it’s better to just try to pump up your productivity numbers (via lower quality work) instead of agonizing over 1 or 2 projects that could have major impact.
Can you elaborate on your take?
 
Saturday’s Child said:
I seem to hear conflicting opinions on the quality vs quantity debate. Some say that since it’s generally hard for a med student to produce JBJS quality work in such a relatively short time span, it’s better to just try to pump up your productivity numbers (via lower quality work) instead of agonizing over 1 or 2 projects that could have major impact.
Can you elaborate on your take?
Click to expand...

you answered your own question.
It’s hard for anyone to produce JBJS quality work. So if you have it you are very impressive. Nobody cares if you have pubs in no name journals. To me it’s the equivalent of have 500 hours of shadowing as a pre Med nice that you did it, but pretty insignificant.

when in life does it ever benefit you to have low quality but more quantity vs high quality? Hardly ever.

my take is likely less Applicable to non-academic programs. But people who do research know how easy it is to publish in throw away journals.
 
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DNC127 said:
you answered your own question.
It’s hard for anyone to produce JBJS quality work. So if you have it you are very impressive. Nobody cares if you have pubs in no name journals. To me it’s the equivalent of have 500 hours of shadowing as a pre Med nice that you did it, but pretty insignificant.

when in life does it ever benefit you to have low quality but more quantity vs high quality? Hardly ever.

my take is likely less Applicable to non-academic programs. But people who do research know how easy it is to publish in throw away journals.
Click to expand...
Just knowing your post history and the amount of research you, would you have done less, and how many of your projects were in high-quality journals?
 
drstranger said:
Just knowing your post history and the amount of research you, would you have done less, and how many of your projects were in high-quality journals?
Click to expand...

Doing the amount of research I did is what allowed me to do far better than I should have in regards to applying ortho with the board scores I had. Also, it has positioned me well for fellowship and academic medicine should I choose to go that route. So no. No regrets at all. I am currently at 48 publications and will be to 75 by fellowship if all goes as planned. Most of our publications are in really good journals. I have 4 in JBJS and probably 10-15 total in "top" 5 ortho journals, a few in BMJ / JAMA, etc. This is not the norm, and likely isn't replicable without a similar system/type of research/mentor. If all my stuff was in junk journals nobody would have cared, which is why I made the statement above. In my mind, one JBJS pub is worth more than 10 trash journal pubs.
 
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DNC127 said:
Doing the amount of research I did is what allowed me to do far better than I should have in regards to applying ortho with the board scores I had. Also, it has positioned me well for fellowship and academic medicine should I choose to go that route. So no. No regrets at all. I am currently at 48 publications and will be to 75 by fellowship if all goes as planned. Most of our publications are in really good journals. I have 4 in JBJS and probably 10-15 total in "top" 5 ortho journals, a few in BMJ / JAMA, etc. This is not the norm, and likely isn't replicable without a similar system/type of research/mentor. If all my stuff was in junk journals nobody would have cared, which is why I made the statement above. In my mind, one JBJS pub is worth more than 10 trash journal pubs.
Click to expand...
How do you end up being in a position where you can do research on this caliber? Lots of cold emails to professors or academic surgeons in your area or what lol.
 
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