Ortho without Ortho research....My program only offers ortho spine research

[mtwop]

Thoughts on matching without any ortho research? I'm not really interested in doing spine ortho research (not a single other ortho project), so I would I be better off pursuing another type of surgical research project?

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[Fleur de Me]

Thoughts on matching without any ortho research? I'm not really interested in doing spine ortho research (not a single other ortho project), so I would I be better off pursuing another type of surgical research project?

It's a super competitive field- I'm sure there are people who match without it, but honestly, if you want to make yourself an attractive candidate I would do it.

I am doing ortho research with someone I emailed who does work I'm interested in. It's working out brilliantly- not only am I getting the research and papers, but I've made great connections with the attendings and residents. I've also learned a lot by scrubbing in and actually participating in surgeries (putting in screws, learning to suture, drilling and chiseling bone).

If you really want to do ortho- find a way to get involved in research you are actually interested in. I've had great success just emailing attendings and showing up to cool surgeries with residents, and going to grand rounds and journal club.

 

[Hemichordate]

It's a super competitive field- I'm sure there are people who match without it, but honestly, if you want to make yourself an attractive candidate I would do it.

I am doing ortho research with someone I emailed who does work I'm interested in. It's working out brilliantly- not only am I getting the research and papers, but I've made great connections with the attendings and residents. I've also learned a lot by scrubbing in and actually participating in surgeries (putting in screws, learning to suture, drilling and chiseling bone).

If you really want to do ortho- find a way to get involved in research you are actually interested in. I've had great success just emailing attendings and showing up to cool surgeries with residents, and going to grand rounds and journal club.

Is your ortho research clinical or bench?

 

[Tygacil]

If you really want to do ortho- find a way to get involved in research you are actually interested in. I've had great success just emailing attendings and showing up to cool surgeries with residents, and going to grand rounds and journal club.

I second this. My home school does not have an ortho research program nor residency (ugh, but apparently its nascent) so I started calling around programs around my geographical area and got connected to some real interesting clinical research along the same lines, including attendance at grand rounds/morning report, rounds, scrubbing into OR cases. I would do this asap though as I doubt there are many spots left (I got the last one at this locale).

 

[Fleur de Me]

Is your ortho research clinical or bench?

The long-term ortho research project I'm involved in is clinical, although my background is in bench/basic science and I will be doing a summer project that is mostly bench work.

Both of these possibilities exist. Frankly I spent years of my life in basic science with relatively little to show for it paper-wise (basic science takes ages).

But, I'm hoping the clinical stuff will provide more publications, it sure seems that way. And it is a nice change of pace!

 

[osumc2014]

I'm doing ortho research now, but honestly it really isn't that much different than the sports medicine stuff I've done before. So find some sports med docs, they are usually very tied to ortho in teaching hospitals!

 

[lrkoehle]

Like others have said, consider looking outside your program. At my school the ortho lab filled up super early, so they had no need for me to do research there this summer. I searched around and found research at a large group ortho practice in town. The research I'll be doing will be clinical too, which is what I wanted to do anyways (at my school they only have basic research).

Still, if you don't find anything else, it would be better to do some sort of research rather than nothing. Unless you really, really hate spine for some reason, I'd suggest you just do that. The summer is not that long, and if you end up in ortho you'll have to do some spine stuff eventually anyways. Some early exposure might make that easier...Who knows, you may end up liking spine more than you think, and at worst you'll at least have some research on your resume to talk about during interviews for a FM residency...