Research without knowing what specialty

[bollywoodlover]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Is research in a field that you don't end up doing your residency in still helpful? Say you start research 1st yr summer and don't know what you want to specialize in and you do neuroscience research but end up wanting to go into ophthalmology.. Will it help at all? Or does all your research need to be tailored to the field you want to go into from the beginning?

 

[Slack3r]

It'll still help, likely not as much as field-specific research, but better than nothing. As long as you can talk about it intelligently and actually contributed to the project.

 

[MedPR]

Along the same lines as the OP, if someone is interested in ortho, neurosurg, and rads, which field-specific research is best to participate in? Meaning, which will be most helpful if you decide to pursue a different field?

 

[Brachyury]

In general, if you are interested in several fields, do research in the one that is most competitive. In less competitive fields, any research helps, but in the most competitive, field-specific research is very benefitial

 

[MedPR]

In general, if you are interested in several fields, do research in the one that is most competitive. In less competitive fields, any research helps, but in the most competitive, field-specific research is very benefitial

Yea, but what if they are all very competitive?

 

[bollywoodlover]

That's what I'm wondering. What if someone was potentially interested in derm, rad onc, optho, and ortho as an ms1 but clearly would most likely not know that early on? Id want to keep my options open so that if i decided i wanted to pursue something competitive in my third yr, Id still be able to do it even without research specific to that Field. I'm guessing cancer research is maybe the safest or most beneficial choice of you aren't sure yet.

 

[topsurgeon2010]

even for competitive fields, as long as you do meaningful research and be productive it'll look good..of course it'll help if you do it in the field you are interested in since it'll help with connections/networking ..when you do decide on a field I do recommend you get a side project just to show your interest and commitment to the the field but it is not required, especially at this stage if you're a M1. couple of friends got into neurosurgery at top programs and never did strictly neurosurgery research (one did vascular, ortho research, etc), another got into a top radiology program and did cardiovascular research..but all of them had productive research experiences (i.e. abstracts/publications)..there is research that combines fields like neuropthamology (how ever you spell optho) research (i.e. optic neuritis in multiple sclerosis, etc), spine research in ortho/neurosurg/rad-onc, ENT/neuro, vascular/neuro, etc...if you want to be on the safe side, do something that is relevant to many different fields, like cancer or immunology research (inflammation, autoimmune, infectious disease), etc---this will cover derm, rad onc, optho and ortho..or you can might as well choose a project in the most competitive fields (derm and optho) this way you can get a head start in research if you do end up sticking with that field or you can always change your mind later..

 

[olecranon4]

Sorry to hijack. Can anyone tell me if there's value in basic science research for residency matches? I'm probably going to matriculate to the med school at my undergrad institution, and I've been doing a meaningful project that I can possibly continue through medical school if I stay in the lab. Would this help much for residency matches or would I just be wasting time? It's genetics-related.

 

[Wordead]

Along the same lines as the OP, if someone is interested in ortho, neurosurg, and rads, which field-specific research is best to participate in? Meaning, which will be most helpful if you decide to pursue a different field?

Yea, but what if they are all very competitive?

Are you interested in those fields just because they're competitive? Because they're so wildly different to me that I can't see any other reason why you'd be interested in those specific fields.

 

[Slack3r]

Are you interested in those fields just because they're competitive? Because they're so wildly different to me that I can't see any other reason why you'd be interested in those specific fields.

$$$/prestige. Duh

 

[Sheldor]

This comes up every year, and I think the best advice is to do two things:

1) Do research in a lab/with a PI who has a track record of allowing medical students to publish or present their work. It is easy to get with very nice attendings who don't know how to get you published.

2) Do research in the most competitive field you are considering, if considering multiple do research that overlaps. Example: Interested in ortho, med Onc and rads? Do research looking at imaging in patients with cancer of the bone. (Simplified to make a point)

It's up to you to weigh these sometimes competing rules but they should serve you in good stead. Good luck!

 

[NickNaylor]

Having done a summer research project chosen primarily based on specialty over other factors that netted me absolutely nothing useful, just want to second Slacker's advice. Choose a project that will likely yield you something tangible (poster, ability to present at a conference, pub, etc.) rather than trying to predict what specialty you're going to go in. Productive research is productive research regardless of the field. I would take a pub or poster in a different field over "doing a project" in my field of interest any day.

(sent from my phone)

 

[CrimsonKing]

Just going to point this out: you don't technically need any research to match into even the very competitive fields, the average numbers for people that match seem so high because so many people go crazy with research projects and publications.

If you go to the AAMC Careers In Medicine site and look at Match Data for specific specialties, you can click on the hyperlinks for a category (ie Mean Step One Score) and it will open a document with a full breakdown of the number of individuals with certain statistics.

For example, in Neurosurgery: 6 people matched with ZERO research projects, 3 people did not match with ZERO research projects. 14 people matched with ZERO publications, 2 people did not match with ZERO publications. The average is much higher (>2 projects, >5 publications, because many people applying have done so much). For example, 41 individuals matched with greater than 5 projects, and 6 individuals did not match with greater than 5 projects. You can of course view all of this data yourself, and look at it with many specialties. More projects/publications will help you for more competitive residencies, but don't mean that much in regards to matching into a specialty overall.

From the data, Step 1 scores are MUCH more important. For example, in Neurosurgery: 51 people matched with less than a 230 on USMLE Step 1, whereas 122 people matched with greater than a 230, and 100% of individuals with a score greater than 250 (n=50) matched into Neurosurgery.

 

[MEDICALLYHIGH]

Good research with results impresses more than anything field-specific. Almost all fields of medicine overlap with several other specialties, so you can always tie it together later, or at the worst look well-rounded. One of the papers I wrapped up was in psych, couldn't care less, but I can pop it on my CV to contrast my mostly real science/surgery-heavy projects.

 

[username456789]

Along the same lines as the OP, if someone is interested in ortho, neurosurg, and rads, which field-specific research is best to participate in? Meaning, which will be most helpful if you decide to pursue a different field?

Do a project dealing with radiologic imaging of the spine. Bam, all 3 are covered.

 

[Brachyury]

The most important thing to do is to start shadowing and soon as you can once you start med school. If you're interested in really different fields, such as ortho, rad onc, derm, and NS, to me, that sounds like you don't have a good understanding of what each field is like. The sooner you can get a feel for what a normal day is like in the specialties you're interested in, the sooner you'll start to understand what you do and don't like

 

[futureczar]

Talked to a vice chairman of a urology department who told me that he doesnt care what kind of research residency applicants did, as long as they showed committment (and had publications ). He said that he understands that people change their minds all the time, so someone who did three years of ENT research with tons of pubs is more valuable than someone who did one year of urology research (exaggerated to make the point).

 

[MedPR]

Are you interested in those fields just because they're competitive? Because they're so wildly different to me that I can't see any other reason why you'd be interested in those specific fields.

I'm interested in spine surgery and I haven't yet decided if it would be better to pursue a neurosurg residency or an ortho residency to get there.

I'm interested in radiology because imagining was my favorite part of undergrad A&P.

Are these legit reasons for being interested in those specialties? I don't know. But they are my reasons.