Research as a doctor not in an academic hospital?

[asgi3717]

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Is it possible to do research as a doctor outside of an academic hospital (such as in a private practice or community hospital)?

I’m interested in global health work using basic science (immunology) and community-based approaches to prevent infectious diseases in low resource settings. I like the research process, but being in academia has made me realize I don’t want to spend the majority of my time in it (due to politics/hierarchy, excessive grant writing, etc). I do want to pursue my interests in global health work though. How would the path to get there look like?

 

[DrMetal]

Is it possible to do research as a doctor outside of an academic hospital

Depends, what do you mean by 'research'?

If you want to do benchtop research, you need a research lab. Research lab = academic setting, usually. Most private and/or community hospitals don't harbor research labs.

Once upon a time, I was a computationalist (number crunching data, running algorithms, simulations, etc), all of which can be done from a laptop (connecting remotely to larger computers). If that's your bent, all you need is a computer and an agreement with a larger (probably academic) computing center (but you need not be faculty at said academic institution).

You can also make Fentanyl in your garage, it's a much easier synthesis than meth.

 

[AlteredScale]

Is it possible to do research as a doctor outside of an academic hospital (such as in a private practice or community hospital)?

I’m interested in global health work using basic science (immunology) and community-based approaches to prevent infectious diseases in low resource settings. I like the research process, but being in academia has made me realize I don’t want to spend the majority of my time in it (due to politics/hierarchy, excessive grant writing, etc). I do want to pursue my interests in global health work though. How would the path to get there look like?

Very confused about your goal here. Do you want to do basic science research? Or ID focused research? If you you want to study mechanisms you need to be willing to sacrifice your pay and time to do mentored research training, even if you don't have a PhD. If you don't do this no one is going to take you seriously and you will not obtain funding to run a lab. Undoubtedly you need to be in a university hospital for community hospital that is VERY connected to a university medical center (physically connected or nearby)

If you want to do the latter (community-based approach to ID prevention) then you can see if your local or state health department has any research projects that are ongoing. You can also apply with the CDC to undergo more training. You can also reach out to academic ID physicians and work with them.

For any of these, do not expected to run a project on your own without mentorship and publications. You will need to work under someone to start.