Research in residency

[Omnivore76]

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hello all,

I’m starting my rad onc residency and I’d like to know how to make the best of my research time. If possibly I’d like to try and avoid chart review projects or large database retrospective reviews as I did those in medical school and they are really unfulfilling... I get that I might *have* to resort to these projects for pubs but has anyone been successful/productive lrgely doing translational or even prospective studies? How did you go about arranging these? Any other general tips for residency success and resume building?

 

[Mandelin Rain]

I wrote a prospective trial (non-database, non-registry, treatment safety/efficacy type trial) in residency. Pretty difficult as you're suddenly dealing with IRB, funding of clinical trials people, legal, and a ton of other head aches. However, if you can pull it off early (like immediately) you can enroll for a 1.5 years and then follow-up for a year before the end of residency. So pick a disease site where short follow up makes some sense (i.e. not breast or prostate). You need to choose something unique to your department (technology, modality, technique, fraction scheme, drug, etc...) that your chairman wants to market and expand indications for. Then you may receive some support in your efforts. At the end though, be prepared to lose first authorship to some senior faculty.

 

[seper]

I would suggest pushing your own ideas from early own, not just being added to someone else's projects as free labor (happens a lot).

 

[Chartreuse Wombat]

As stated above the only way you can get a prospective study done is 1) common disease, 2) short-term endpoint (e.g. GBM, lung , pancreas). You also will require a supportive clinical research team. The administrative burden is substantial if you are dealing with human subjects and 4 years is not a long period of time. It is possible but difficult. You should also make sure that you are not ignoring clinical responsibilities and learning.

Another model is to pick-up an ongoing trial and do the work with/for an attending who is willing to provide you academic credit. This is more possible at some programs but not all. If authorship is important to you then it is best to determine these things ahead of time coincident with your brief description and analysis plan. Good Luck.

 

[Haybrant]

unless youre in love w clinical medicine do some research outside of clinical medicine. Personally I don't find a study that looks at the differences in PTV expansion of a breast IMRT by 0.2 vs 0.3cm to be very fulfilling but that's what rad oncs love doing. Think smarter.

 

[emt409]

It's doable if you have supportive faculty and non-abusive scheduling. I am a PGY-2, and wrote a study, sought out private funding, got it funded, and am enrolling patients. This would not have been at all possible without a very supportive faculty mentor. As the previous poster noted, be prepared to lose some first-authorships and oral presentations. For instance, just the write-up about our trial received an oral presentation at the upcoming functional neurosurgery meeting, and my mentor is going to give the presentation though I wrote it up. I don't mind this, and actually find it advantageous, as it gives the trial more credibility and will increase our out of state referrals. Fortunately, he prefers to be senior author on publications (comes from a basic science background) and I don't have to give up 1st-authorships.

In general, the more established the faculty you work with, the less likely you are to have to give up first-authorships.

 

[Mandelin Rain]

In general, the more established the faculty you work with, the less likely you are to have to give up first-authorships.

Truth.