research plans this summer - which project should I choose, or both?

[alexagator]

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I have two pretty neat options in hand right now for this upcoming summer (before MS2).

One project is in internal medicine, and I will most likely receive a stipend for it if it goes through. It is a retrospective chart review and seems to be very doable. The IRB isn't written up, and I will have to write it up myself (with the supposed help of the PI). I most likely can't start the project until the actual summer due to all the red tape/writing the IRB, etc. The PI is interested in sending me off to conferences and presenting my work after its completion.

The other project is in ophthalmology. No stipend, but also, no IRB approval required. I can get started with collecting data right away during the school year and throughout the summer. The PI is a pretty big name and also invested in getting me published.

I am interested in both fields, but yes, IM is quite different from ophthalmology. I think it would be doable to do both projects, and especially nice to be paid for the IM one. I'm thinking that I could start out doing both over the summer, since I have the time, and see which specialty ends up piquing my interest more and then going all in during the school year. The majority of my time would be dedicated to the IM project, but it appears easy enough to work on the optho research part time. However, I don't know how wise it is to do so.

I'm worried that when it comes time to apply for residency that my application will seem disjointed. Like if I apply for IM residency and have a track record of ophtho research, the committee might not look at me so favorably. And also, who knows if I'll end up in something completely different...it's so early in my medical education.

What would you all suggest I do?

 

[Lya]

Ophtho is more competitive than IM. If you have no financial concerns, I would do ophtho research only.

You said your ophtho PI is invested in your project. You should invest all of your time and effort as well in return. If you do both IM and ophtho research, your PIs can tell you are not as serious and productive in your research as they expect. Working on ophtho research part time does not sound like a good idea.

My guess is that it is easier to get in IM with ophtho pubs under your belt than vice versa, so I wouldn't worry about it if you end up going into IM.

 

[bananafish94]

It shouldn't make a difference what kind of research you do. They understand that nobody knows exactly what they want to go into during M1 year. Personally I'd go with the one that gets a stipend. If it's only a retrospective chart review you should be able to get expedited IRB and if you get all the EMR training out of the way soon I don't see why you wouldn't be able to start it before the summer.

 

[alexagator]

Ophtho is more competitive than IM. If you have no financial concerns, I would do ophtho research only.

You said your ophtho PI is invested in your project. You should invest all of your time and effort as well in return. If you do both IM and ophtho research, your PIs can tell you are not as serious and productive in your research as they expect. Working on ophtho research part time does not sound like a good idea.

My guess is that it is easier to get in IM with ophtho pubs under your belt than vice versa, so I wouldn't worry about it if you end up going into IM.

One thing I failed to mention in my original post is that with the optho research, I am limited to 1-2 half days a week during which I can access the physical samples and the data (this limit applies to the PI and all his fellows as well). This doesn't seem to impede their ability to churn out papers. The PI says I can also work on writing a review article during the "downtime". So that's why I think it would probably be feasible to do the ophtho project part time, since I'm forced to, anyway. Not sure if it's wise to fill in the gaps with the IM project or if I should find an additional project more related to ophtho.

 

[Lya]

One thing I failed to mention in my original post is that with the optho research, I am limited to 1-2 half days a week during which I can access the physical samples and the data (this limit applies to the PI and all his fellows as well). This doesn't seem to impede their ability to churn out papers. The PI says I can also work on writing a review article during the "downtime". So that's why I think it would probably be feasible to do the ophtho project part time, since I'm forced to, anyway. Not sure if it's wise to fill in the gaps with the IM project or if I should find an additional project more related to ophtho.

I see. It entirely depends on how serious and committed you are on going for ophtho.

If I were you, I would look for another ophtho project to fill in that gap (eg retrospective chart review rather than literature review if possible). Just because your PI is a big name, there is no guarantee that you will end up with pubs. So it might be nice to have another ophtho project going on as a back up.

But if you are really unsure about which field, you cannot go wrong with doing the IM project as you said.