research in med school?

[jbing]

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i already posted this in the premed forum but figured it would make more sense in here:

i've heard some of my friends say that they prefer one school over another because one school is research oriented and the other is more primary care oriented. what i don't get is how a medical student will have time to do research, and if so isn't it only going to be limited to clinical research? i mean, if you want to do any meaningful basic science research, my understanding is that med school is not the place to do it, go get your phd or something. so basically im wondering if people do research in med school and what the nature of it is. thanks.

 

[nuclearrabbit77]

well i understand your perspective, the weight that NIH research money has on the algorithm used to calculate how good a school is by U.S. news standards, doesn't consider that most medical students won't participate in much substantial research besides a summer between their m1 and m2 years, or if they are MSTP. i could delve into the inadequacies of us news rankings, but i won't. (somethings that come to mind is cost/benefit ratio, quality of location, student satisfaction, average usmle scores, among other things.....)

however, although a majority of students don't participate in research concurrent with their studies..., there are students who do. i did, and currently do,...and i know of some others as well.
by no means is it necessary to be successful, but it definetly can provide some benefits down the road.

do only elite institutions participate in quality research? no. do they produce it more consistently and attract stars in their fields? yes. if you do decide to do any research, you will probably have more opportunity to work with a very respected person in his/her field, and probably have a better chance of it being published in a quality journal. does this mean that this isn't possible at a "lower" tier university? absolutely not.

all and all, besides the points mentioned, your medical education will not be affected significantly by how NIH money is brought in by your institution. but medical education is different then medical respect. and when it comes to applying to residency, it will not hurt to come from a school with a good name. again, i stress that this is a generalization....it's quite common to see people match into prestigious residency spots from not-so prestigous medical schools.

don't let u.s. news dictate where you end up. it's merely a guideline. trust your gut feeling.

 

[bullsI]

I would say that research in the summers between M1 and M2 is more often non-productive than productive. That is, unless you are continuing a project from undergrad, you have a lot of assistance, you have an easy project, etc. I think it would be better to take a year off, for example, to allow for depth and completion of a project. NIH does take medical students for various lengths of time for research. The most beneficial aspect of doing research in the short-term is making contacts and deciding if research is something you want to pursue, say at a heavily research funded institution after you finish med school training.

 

[mpp]

Some medical schools have research components built into the curriculum such that there is dedicated time devoted solely to research. You might also ask schools how many of their students have published work while they are in medical school.

Even without the dedicated time in the curriculum, research is possible if you are willing to put the time into it on top of your studies. Or, you can get yourself involved in a research lab to work on a small component of a larger project such that you can get your name on a few papers while in medical school.

 

[Lux Aeterna]

I graduated in May from undergrad and continued full-time in my research at CHOP (which I had started the summer before senior year). It's been a great experience, I've gotten the abstracts/papers output (2nd author on a few in pretty strong journals ), etc, and I've been able to work independently on my own projects.

Now, when I enter med school, I'm gonna be married and would like to really concentrate on my studies. I probably won't do any research.... I know this may be a lame question, but will the research I've done for 1.5 years pre-med school have a significant effect ? Or does it just not hold that much weight as time passes? Will I have to do research in med school to obtain a competitive residency? (assuming grades, step 1 etc is all good...and granted i realize you probably don't need research for a top notch residency 100% of the time--)

 

[dr barb]

I think that doing research would be doable if you already have research experience and you're doing it more for a chance to publish rather than trying to learn how to perform different research techniques. I started doing research last summer (between my MS1 and MS2 years) and have continued working in the same lab, 1-2 times a week. I also have an undergrad pre-med student who comes in once a week to help me. In exchange for me teaching her molecular techniques (PCR, etc), she runs my gels and such so I can focus on more of the academic side of research (i.e. designing experiments, writing papers,etc.) and also so I have more time doing the more difficult techniques, instead of wasting my time running gels.

 

[dara678]

Do you need to have research to get into certain residencies?

 

[dr barb]

I highly recommend getting Iserson's Getting Into A Residency: A guide for medical students, if you don't already have it. Although many people don't get until they're ready to apply for residency, it is a great book to have all throughout medical school because you can use as a reference for all your questions.
The take home message seems to be that research is not "required" by any specialty, but that more competitive residencies like neurosurg, ortho, etc. "highly recommend" research. Here's a little something I made up based on what I've heard from various residents and attendings:

If you don't like research + you don't want a competitive residency --> don't waste your time doing research

If you don't like research but you want a competitive residency
--> you may want to consider doing something during the summer or if you really hate it, just focus on making the rest of your application really strong.

If you like research regardless of what type of residency you choose --> do it.

Hope this helps!