Research Q...Informal vs None

[MLT2MT2DO]

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I work in a clinical lab part of my job is to do such things as correlations and normal value studies upon other studies and it would be very easy for me to add things like socioeconomic, race, age etc. etc. into these studies.
How admission officers view informal research, is it something worth doing as it wouldn’t be too difficult to fit into my schedule or would it be more of a waste of time and not worth the effort?
Formal research may be an option in the future as it is another couple years before I’ll be applying to med school, but I was just curious about the consensus on informal research.

 

[theserbatron]

whether your research is informal or formal, i think the lessons learned from it and insight you gain about science and medicine is the most important part.

an opportunity to become published is excellent, but also learning how to reason and design experiments as a scientist would are skills that would be beneficial for any applicant to learn and talk about in their personal statement or interviews. research was a large component of my application, and not all of it was formal, but the lessons learned were more important than the research itself, and i got positive feedback on this from admiss committees on the interview trail. good luck!

 

[t-funk]

I am not quite sure if I am understanding your question correctly. I worked in a clinical pharmaceutical research lab for 3.5 yrs. Even though I didn't have my own special project, it was still considered research experience. I am not sure if your lab is a research lab or not but, one way or another, the work experience will look very good on your application, IMO. How would you describe this project if you were putting it on your application? Would it look like it was above and beyond your current work responsibilities? Would you attempt to publish the data? I'm sure you could do some sort of extra project if you wanted, but I don't know if that will really stand out above and beyond what you are already doing for your job.

 

[Porco Rosso]

i would say that if you really want to go DO route, shadowing a DO and watching him/her practice OMM/clinicals is far more important. They will expect you to be current on medical trends but for DO schools, research isnt big of a factor unless you are interested in DO/PhD

thus, shadow a DO and apply very early (first week of application cycle)

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

I am not quite sure if I am understanding your question correctly. I worked in a clinical pharmaceutical research lab for 3.5 yrs. Even though I didn't have my own special project, it was still considered research experience. I am not sure if your lab is a research lab or not but, one way or another, the work experience will look very good on your application, IMO. How would you describe this project if you were putting it on your application? Would it look like it was above and beyond your current work responsibilities? Would you attempt to publish the data? I'm sure you could do some sort of extra project if you wanted, but I don't know if that will really stand out above and beyond what you are already doing for your job.

I current work in a hospital clincical laboratory. I don't normally dabble in research in my daily job, outside normal patient values and such, but the option is there. I normally deal with patients and patient test results, sometimes helpin doctors correalate reflex testing.
The research, although along the same lines of what my current career is in, would actually be above and beyond what my job is. I was thinking along the lines of taking a clinical chemistry book developing a hypothesis question the integrity of certain passages in the book (many hospital lab books today are just accepted and not questioned although I know first hand of a very popular in use one that I have seen patient results not reflect the data that was collected way back in the '80s). My boss has asked if I would be interested in conduct certain studies like this (yes my boss asked but it is not the norm for my job requirment) to see if they hold true or not.

My job experience will be a strong part of my app as I will have 8+ years working as a lab tech come application time. I was thinking I should do the informal research if it is worth the time and effort I should put into it.

Thank you for the feedback

 

[t-funk]

i would say that if you really want to go DO route, shadowing a DO and watching him/her practice OMM/clinicals is far more important. They will expect you to be current on medical trends but for DO schools, research isnt big of a factor unless you are interested in DO/PhD

thus, shadow a DO and apply very early (first week of application cycle)

Personally, I agree with this. I had over seven years of research experience in 4 different settings, my own 1.5 year project with a grant proposal and many conferences and I feel it was really only brought up briefly, if at all, in my interviews. However, a lot of other people say they spoke about their research a lot during their interviews so I don't know.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

i would say that if you really want to go DO route, shadowing a DO and watching him/her practice OMM/clinicals is far more important. They will expect you to be current on medical trends but for DO schools, research isnt big of a factor unless you are interested in DO/PhD

thus, shadow a DO and apply very early (first week of application cycle)

DO is the route I'll be going, I'll be nearly 30 by the time of marticulation (if all goes according to plan). I do plan on the shadowing of a couple DOs, and am also currently volunteering.

I am mainly trying to get the research part squared away and as the title says mostly trying to compare informal research vs no research at all.

 

[t-funk]

I current work in a hospital clincical laboratory. I don't normally dabble in research in my daily job, outside normal patient values and such, but the option is there. I normally deal with patients and patient test results, sometimes helpin doctors correalate reflex testing.
The research, although along the same lines of what my current career is in, would actually be above and beyond what my job is. I was thinking along the lines of taking a clinical chemistry book developing a hypothesis question the integrity of certain passages in the book (many hospital lab books today are just accepted and not questioned although I know first hand of a very popular in use one that I have seen patient results not reflect the data that was collected way back in the '80s). My boss has asked if I would be interested in conduct certain studies like this (yes my boss asked but it is not the norm for my job requirment) to see if they hold true or not.

My job experience will be a strong part of my app as I will have 8+ years working as a lab tech come application time. I was thinking I should do the informal research if it is worth the time and effort I should put into it.

Thank you for the feedback

Well that sounds super interesting. It sounds like your boss is behind you and like a good idea if you're truly interested in it. I just think it's so hard to gauge how the adcoms feel about these things so you should probably only do it if you are interested in it and would do it anyway and make sure you get the appropriate clinical experience too. Just my opinion though.

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

. I just think it's so hard to gauge how the adcoms feel about these things

This is what I was trying to figure out, it wouldn't be a ton of extra legwork but it would be a bit.