Research in Fellowship

[KingCatechol]

This is a question for the fellows out there

Been thinking about fellowship in a few years and I've been looking at different fellowship schedules. I see mostly clinical in the first year and the later 2 years are mostly research.
What is exactly goes on during "research" blocks on the day to day. I know by the end you have to produce something but, what are people doing? Hidden in a lab? At home on the web? On a beach in Bermuda?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[SurfingDoctor]

This is a question for the fellows out there

Been thinking about fellowship in a few years and I've been looking at different fellowship schedules. I see mostly clinical in the first year and the later 2 years are mostly research.
What is exactly goes on during "research" blocks on the day to day. I know by the end you have to produce something but, what are people doing? Hidden in a lab? At home on the web? On a beach in Bermuda?

The ABP has incredibly vague outlines of what research is as a fellow or "scholarly activity" as they call it.
Scholarly Activity

As with all research, there is no set schedule. People do bench research, prospective clinical/translational research, quality improvement projects with the intent to publish, medical education. It is highly specialty specific and depends on how much a future career requires research and how much one wants to stay in academic medicine. For instance, in critical care were there is generally speaking limited interest in research, most people will do some sort of retrospective cohort study. The extent of this research includes getting IRB approval (which usually case be waived or expedited because it is not prospective), collecting all the data to answer the question, and then giving it to the statistics department to crunch the numbers. Clearly, the effort one puts into such a project is equal to what they get out of it. This is not an example of great research, but merely an example of research to fulfill the ABP requirement. Great research involves a complex study (prospective or animal model) with 1 or more publications and typically, extra time or additional higher level degrees (MPH, MSCI or rarely PhD) with fellowship or training grant funding.

 

[thetubes]

This is a question for the fellows out there

Been thinking about fellowship in a few years and I've been looking at different fellowship schedules. I see mostly clinical in the first year and the later 2 years are mostly research.
What is exactly goes on during "research" blocks on the day to day. I know by the end you have to produce something but, what are people doing? Hidden in a lab? At home on the web? On a beach in Bermuda?

The location varies a lot...but the bottom line is that I'm pretty busy when I'm on research. There are months at a time when I am in the lab (except for a half day of clinic or alternating weekends when I am on service). I present every 2 week mini-updates at lab meeting and larger presentations about quarterly. When I'm not in the lab, I'm busy reading and writing, either at my office or at home but usually a combination of both. The results have been fruitful: I published in a reasonably high impact journal (stemming from work as a resident), wrote a review article for a high impact journal, and wrote a book chapter during my first year of fellowship.