Research During Medical School

[inkare]

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I was wondering if it's possible to balance research and medical school curriculum during the first two years of school. I want to continue with research while at medical school, and I've heard horror stories of how busy you are and how much you are always short for time even for the med school curriculum. It sounds like it is impossible to do research like that.

I know you can do research during the summer between M1 and M2, or take a research elective, but that is not enough time to do something meaningful and get publications. How do people get pubs (not talking about clinical or case reports) during medical school anyways ?

Has anyone dealt with this dilemma ?

 

[koopa_troopa]

I am also curious how other manage this as well. I'm planning to not take on anything extra in first year and try to carry on summer research into the M2 year.

 

[neuroprotector]

I know it can be done if you can get an in with a faculty member for some support, but it sure as hell ain't easy. Some schools have research tracks, which might make it easier too.

But I'm curious too.

 

[CardiacIntensivist]

one of my friends did research all through 1st year. He got the job in the beginning of the school year when a mass email was sent out. He seems to balance it fine but has commented about how time consuming it can get and that he doesn't do any other extracurriculars.

 

[vtucci]

It is absolutely possible to do research in medical school (even in third year- yikes I know crazy, right). It requires strong organizational skills and a good research mentor.

What is meant by meaningful research? Bench research is not easily accomplished. There is nothing wrong with starting out first with a clinical case report/lit review and getting your feet wet. This can help form the basis for more substantive research. Funding is often the barrier with prospective studies, RCTs etc. See if there is an attending who already has a grant in a field you are interested in.

It is great to do a really involved project and statistical meta-analysis. However, as a student, a publication is well-regarded even if it is just the "case report". It shows follow-through and commitment.

 

[Slide]

I'm interested in hearing from older students that did research their second year. My summer research has largely been clinical, but there's a good chance I may get it published if I get the green light to write it (waiting for acceptance). However, this would require me to extend my research into second year to write this paper, possibly. I don't want my studies to take a hit either because I'm determined to do very well this upcoming year.

 

[RxnMan]

I'm interested in hearing from older students that did research their second year. My summer research has largely been clinical, but there's a good chance I may get it published if I get the green light to write it (waiting for acceptance). However, this would require me to extend my research into second year to write this paper, possibly. I don't want my studies to take a hit either because I'm determined to do very well this upcoming year.

My MS1 summer work extended into MS2. I ended up working a lot of our "study days" and/or working weekends. My project was clinical, so I also had to put a lot of time into finding and scheduling subjects. While I think that I learned a lot and I enjoyed the process, it was hard.

If by "extending" your research you mean only writing a paper, then that is a relatively small time committment, and won't take too much time.

 

[SAS1284]

I was also wondering about this issue as well. It seems like it is manageable, but it largely depends on what the research is like. I had another question, how important is it to publish first author to get into a competative residency. I will be fourth out of seven for some research I recently did, but I am now looking at options for doing my own project within the lab. Thanks!

 

[jdh71]

It all depends on what you mean by "research"?

Putting together a case for a poster can be done in an afternoon, and some people will laughingly call this "research". If you can find someone who has a project going who needs help with gathering data or data organization for clinical research, you could probably find time for that, especially if you do not have any sort of spouse/parenting responsibilities.

But REAL research, the stuff that comes off of a bench . . . unless you were planning on not sleeping I don't see how you could do it properly. If you want to do some heavy research, take some time and knock it out of the park, and then come back.

 

[nsx]

how important is it to publish first author to get into a competative residency

Along the same lines...given a choice, is it smarter to have fourth author on a subject connected to the residency you want, or gun for first author on something unrelated?

 

[degoo_]

I did research for a few hours every week for all of first year. Its not terribly difficult; I was just extremely flexible with my time. Having a fixed schedule is much more difficult to maintain.

 

[indo]

I worked once per week during 2nd year. This requires that you don't have 2 day experiments. I used cells that required about a week to become confluent in the dishes and I used a experiment protocol that I could complete in 5 hours or so.

 

[jdh71]

Along the same lines...given a choice, is it smarter to have fourth author on a subject connected to the residency you want, or gun for first author on something unrelated?

I'd be more impressed with first author status, but no one really asked me . . .

 

[CCLCMer]

I was wondering if it's possible to balance research and medical school curriculum during the first two years of school. I want to continue with research while at medical school, and I've heard horror stories of how busy you are and how much you are always short for time even for the med school curriculum. It sounds like it is impossible to do research like that.

It is at my school. A lot of my classmates kept doing research all during first and second years. It helps a lot that we don't have tests or grades here.

 

[Blade28]

I started a few clinical research projects in the summer after my MS-I year and continued until midway through my MS-IV year - ended up with a couple presentations and a couple papers.

 

[inkare]

Should I wait until summer to find a research project, or should I look for one right when I start ? However, I'm afraid I might be overwhelmed by medical school coursework (cause I have no clue what It will be like), and not have enough time to devote to research. That might give my PI a bad impression instead of a good one. On the other hand, I have friends who did a lot of research right when he started, and got abstracts and oral presentations at conferences.

 

[Wordead]

Are these students that did research during MS1/2 paid? Or is that a pipe dream....

I did research as an undergrad, but i either got credit (like 12 credits of As...very helpful) or paid. I can't imagine taking on a difficult research workload without getting something in return....

Not to sound selfish or anything. 😛

 

[RxnMan]

A lot of the questions raised in this thread are answered in the Research FAQ (link in my sig).

 

[Man In White]

We had 2 months between MS1 and MS2. I did a research preceptorship with the intention of continuing into 2nd year, and it worked out well. This was bench work, and for my particular school the first half of 2nd year was not too difficult, so I managed classes and research relatively well - of course, I had zero life during this period. I stopped after December to study for Step 1 - so in all a good 6-7 months of benchwork.

But as I say, it worked out well - I presented a poster, an abstract was accepted, and will be publishing a paper in the near future.

It's definitely possible, you just have to make certain sacrifices and be determined. 👍

 

[sprinkibrio]

I was wondering if it's possible to balance research and medical school curriculum during the first two years of school. I want to continue with research while at medical school, and I've heard horror stories of how busy you are and how much you are always short for time even for the med school curriculum. It sounds like it is impossible to do research like that.

I know you can do research during the summer between M1 and M2, or take a research elective, but that is not enough time to do something meaningful and get publications. How do people get pubs (not talking about clinical or case reports) during medical school anyways ?

Has anyone dealt with this dilemma ?

I did clinical research before first year, in between first and second year, and I'll take a month elective fourth year. By the time I graduate I'll have written two abstracts (put into our med student forum's publication), presented two posters, and *hopefully* been published three times. I love research but I sure as hell wouldn't do it during the school year. It requires a different type of focus, and I frankly can't do two things like that at the same time.

 

[LabMonster]

It is absolutely possible to do research in medical school (even in third year- yikes I know crazy, right). It requires strong organizational skills and a good research mentor.

What is meant by meaningful research? Bench research is not easily accomplished. There is nothing wrong with starting out first with a clinical case report/lit review and getting your feet wet. This can help form the basis for more substantive research. Funding is often the barrier with prospective studies, RCTs etc. See if there is an attending who already has a grant in a field you are interested in.

It is great to do a really involved project and statistical meta-analysis. However, as a student, a publication is well-regarded even if it is just the "case report". It shows follow-through and commitment.

Absolutely. It really starts with a mentor - which is networking, politics and social skills. You'll need help to pull off anything during 3rd year (especially if you have a family life, i.e. significant other, kids.)

 

[lmcener2]

I think it's important to consider the time scale for the project you are thinking of involving yourself in. I am an MSII, and I just spent my summer doing research. From the standpoint of getting publications, it was a wasted summer. The project I chose is so cutting edge and so large-scale, that it will take at least one more year before we amass any real data (and the project has already been going on for the last year). One of my classmates chose a smaller time-scale project that is taking considerably less time to complete, so a publication seems more likely for her.

 

[PeaceKeeper]

I was wondering if it's possible to balance research and medical school curriculum during the first two years of school. I want to continue with research while at medical school, and I've heard horror stories of how busy you are and how much you are always short for time even for the med school curriculum. It sounds like it is impossible to do research like that.

I know you can do research during the summer between M1 and M2, or take a research elective, but that is not enough time to do something meaningful and get publications. How do people get pubs (not talking about clinical or case reports) during medical school anyways ?

Has anyone dealt with this dilemma ?

There is time during school, unless you want to be first author. Lot's of phds are looking for a little extra help. If you want to run your own mini project and do it right, you'll definately have to wait for summer.