Research during medical school - which route should I take?

[pathologyDO]

I am interested in pursuing a career as a surgeon (possibly orthopedics) and I know that it is of the utmost importance to do research in order to score a residency position. Although I am considering the surgical career path, I am not fully committed to the idea, yet I have strong feelings about going that route (a family member of mine was a surgeon, I believe I would enjoy the nice split between clinic and OR time, good pay, well respected). I know that ideas change over the course of medical school for many students and that the clinical years will probably sway me towards the specialty I am most passionate about.

So lets get to the point.... what I want to know is how important will the category of research I take part in be for determining my eligibility for a surgical residency? I am compelled to do surgical research, but I fear that if I change my mind and decide not to specialize in some type of surgery during clinical years that I will be stuck with that EC and it may no longer be applicable to my specialty of choice.

Is there a type of "blanket" research that I could do which wouldn't limit my options to just surgery? Will doing surgery research necessarily limit my options to just surgery?

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[TriagePreMed]

People have different interests as they learn about things. I highly doubt doing surgical research would be seen negatively if you change your mind. One of the other important things to realize for you is that whatever you do in research is probably not going to be in any way awe inspiring. You're going to be just a med student helping on a project. It's more about the value of applying yourself in research than the research itself.

 

[cliquesh]

Research, at least from my experience, isn't that important when applying to residency. It matters for some fields, but not most. Having any published research will help your application even if its irrelevant to your specialty, so I wouldn't worry about it.

If you think you might want to do something competitive like orthopedics, urology, ophthalmology or neurosurgery, it would be in your best interest to do specialty specific research early on.

 

[Goro]

First, get into medical school, then worry about the research. You might find that you're so busy studying that you won't have time for it.

Second, of the ~5-10 people we graduate into residency programs for surgery, none of them ever do research.

Research at DO schools tends to be limited compared their MD counterparts. You may be thus limited to what the faculty are doing, say, neuroscience or metabolism, but no physiology or micro/immune/hem/onc.

I am interested in pursuing a career as a surgeon (possibly orthopedics) and I know that it is of the utmost importance to do research in order to score a residency position. Although I am considering the surgical career path, I am not fully committed to the idea, yet I have strong feelings about going that route (a family member of mine was a surgeon, I believe I would enjoy the nice split between clinic and OR time, good pay, well respected). I know that ideas change over the course of medical school for many students and that the clinical years will probably sway me towards the specialty I am most passionate about.

So lets get to the point.... what I want to know is how important will the category of research I take part in be for determining my eligibility for a surgical residency? I am compelled to do surgical research, but I fear that if I change my mind and decide not to specialize in some type of surgery during clinical years that I will be stuck with that EC and it may no longer be applicable to my specialty of choice.

Is there a type of "blanket" research that I could do which wouldn't limit my options to just surgery? Will doing surgery research necessarily limit my options to just surgery?

 

[pathologyDO]

Research, at least from my experience, isn't that important when applying to residency. It matters for some fields, but not most. Having any published research will help your application even if its irrelevant to your specialty, so I wouldn't worry about it.

If you think you might want to do something competitive like orthopedics, urology, ophthalmology or neurosurgery, it would be in your best interest to do specialty specific research early on.

Thank you for your reply. So if I am strongly favoring a surgery specialty it is in my best interest to do research early on in that field, got it. If I don't want to go into surgery later, as long as I have a publication then the EC will still benefit my application to other specialties, got it

First, get into medical school, then worry about the research. You might find that you're so busy studying that you won't have time for it.

Second, of the ~5-10 people we graduate into residency programs for surgery, none of them ever do research.

Research at DO schools tends to be limited compared their MD counterparts. You may be thus limited to what the faculty are doing, say, neuroscience or metabolism, but no physiology or micro/immune/hem/onc.

Thanks for your reply. I've already been accepted to KCUMB (c/o 2017!!) so if you meant get accepted into medical school rather than wait till I start, I've already done so! KCUMB seems to have some pretty good research opportunities but I don't know whether they have surgical type research yet, but in case they do I want to have a plan prepared prior to the chaos of first year.

Thanks again for the responses.

 

[dermpathdoc]

if you are interested in surgery why do you have a pathologyDO moniker? just curious

 

[LaughingMan]

if you are interested in surgery why do you have a pathologydo moniker? Just curious

+1

 

[pathologyDO]

Good question! That was my original idea of what I wanted to do. I am an INTJ (slight introvert), so pathology seemed like something I might like. Heck, I still might consider it. But surgery interests me more now that I have been in the OR and seen what they do, and thinking about it, I would like SOME patient interaction... Of course there is plenty more time and experiences that will help solidify my decision, but for now, I feel like I would regret not trying for surgery. That being said I'm going to work my ass of as if I am going into surgery, that way I will still have the option later on.

 

[cliquesh]

Good question! That was my original idea of what I wanted to do. I am an INTJ (slight introvert), so pathology seemed like something I might like. Heck, I still might consider it. But surgery interests me more now that I have been in the OR and seen what they do, and thinking about it, I would like SOME patient interaction... Of course there is plenty more time and experiences that will help solidify my decision, but for now, I feel like I would regret not trying for surgery. That being said I'm going to work my ass of as if I am going into surgery, that way I will still have the option later on.

Pathology followed by a blood banking and transfusion medicine fellowship has a good amount of patient interaction..just for your information

 

[pathologyDO]

Pathology followed by a blood banking and transfusion medicine fellowship has a good amount of patient interaction..just for your information

Interesting...

 

[hallowmann]

Thanks for your reply. I've already been accepted to KCUMB (c/o 2017!!) so if you meant get accepted into medical school rather than wait till I start, I've already done so! KCUMB seems to have some pretty good research opportunities but I don't know whether they have surgical type research yet, but in case they do I want to have a plan prepared prior to the chaos of first year.

Thanks again for the responses.

I'm pretty sure Goro meant that you should wait until you are actually in medical school, because you might find that you have no time for research, at least during the school year.

 

[pathologyDO]

Do most students do research during the summer between M1 and M2, rather than during the semester? From what I have read, which may or may not be true, is that almost all students that want to get into competitive specialties like ortho surgery all have done research. Having done 2 years undergraduate research I would like to continue the trend, regardless, but I am particularly interested in anything that will boost my application and help me score a residency spot (hopefully St. Mary in Missouri)

 

[enigmalti]

Good question! That was my original idea of what I wanted to do. I am an INTJ (slight introvert), so pathology seemed like something I might like. Heck, I still might consider it. But surgery interests me more now that I have been in the OR and seen what they do, and thinking about it, I would like SOME patient interaction... Of course there is plenty more time and experiences that will help solidify my decision, but for now, I feel like I would regret not trying for surgery. That being said I'm going to work my ass of as if I am going into surgery, that way I will still have the option later on.

Dude...I'm an INTJ and I'm interested in surgery...plastic surgery.