Research Opportunity Dealing with Physical Therapy

[Skxptical]

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I need to get started on research because it's my third semester in undergrad, and I thought that it would be great to incorporate my life story--broken back, close to being paralyzed--into that research. However, the only research opportunities at my university are physical therapy oriented. I think that this might be a drawback as far as med school admissions, since it isn't as "scientific" as biochemical research on cancer for example.

Am I just overthinking it and do it anyway, or should I look for a more traditional research opportunity?

 

[mcatjelly]

Overthinking it. Just do it!

 

[Spinach Dip]

Overthinking it. Just do it!

^

I wish I had research opportunities when I was a sophomore.

 

[LizzyM]

I need to get started on research because it's my third semester in undergrad, and I thought that it would be great to incorporate my life story--broken back, close to being paralyzed--into that research. However, the only research opportunities at my university are physical therapy oriented. I think that this might be a drawback as far as med school admissions, since it isn't as "scientific" as biochemical research on cancer for example.

Am I just overthinking it and do it anyway, or should I look for a more traditional research opportunity?

Really!? Research that is not scientific?? You need to rethink what is science and what is research. There is natural science and applied science about the natural world and physical responses to stimuli. There is research into behavior (human behavior or animal behavior) and research into how groups of people interact and cooperate. There is research that assesses outcomes of interventions designed to improve the health of individuals and communities.

There are testable hypotheses and there is exploratory research that is often preliminary to developing a testable hypothesis.

You may think that adcoms will discount research that is not basic science research that is related to human biology but you would not be correct.

 

[narvik2016]

I did research in my school's department of physical therapy working on clinical trials... got to work with patients, PTs, MDs, PhDs, etc. It was one of the best things I ever did! Take the opportunity.

 

[Skxptical]

Wow, thanks so much guys. I guess I've always had the impression that I had to be physically in a lab for it to look good on my resume, and since I wanted to do something related to my own injury, I thought I'd have to be doing some groundbreaking research on curing paralysis using stem cells or something of that nature. I thought I was just going to have to do some random lab work that I wasn't interested in after not finding such an opportunity at my university (duh), but now I know that I can do just as meaningful research on rehabilitation after spinal injury.

 

[Spinach Dip]

... I thought I'd have to be doing some groundbreaking research on curing paralysis using stem cells or something of that nature. ...

Save that for your first NIH grant.

 

[Skxptical]

Really!? Research that is not scientific?? You need to rethink what is science and what is research. There is natural science and applied science about the natural world and physical responses to stimuli. There is research into behavior (human behavior or animal behavior) and research into how groups of people interact and cooperate. There is research that assesses outcomes of interventions designed to improve the health of individuals and communities.

There are testable hypotheses and there is exploratory research that is often preliminary to developing a testable hypothesis.

You may think that adcoms will discount research that is not basic science research that is related to human biology but you would not be correct.

I've also always been interested in psychology research, but have had the same fears about that (especially since psychology does not seem to be well regarded as a science, or at least by my peers). Am I wrong to think that too, since you specifically mentioned that research can extended into how groups of people interact and cooperate?

 

[LizzyM]

The medical students here are spending an enormous amount of time learning about theories of behavior change. That's one area of psychology with relevance to medicine. Ditto the work being on applications including apps for mobile devices to help with behavior change and cognitive behavioral therapy.

Not all psych research is like the opening scene of Ghostbusters or the recent movie on the Stanford Prison Experiment. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420293/