Types of clinical research in medical school

[studentmed567]

Hello, I am hoping to get feedback on the different forms of research that I can explore in medical school. I enjoyed my wet lab/basic science research in undergrad, but I realized that I prefer research that is more clinically-oriented. I then served as a clinical research coordinator before med school, but mainly helped out with running industry-sponsored clinical trials. It was solely following a protocol, and I missed the data analysis aspect. What other types of clinically-oriented research could I pursue? I was thinking potentially outcomes research, but I am not too familiar with the different forms it can take and would appreciate any insight. Thanks!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[pazzer2]

Clinical research projects can be either retrospective or prospective. Since you were a clinical research coordinator you probably were involved in prospective studies. These can take anywhere from a few months (phase 1) to a few years (phase 3) to complete. As a medical student you might be able to volunteer to help on some of these studies.

The retrospective analyses are much easier to get involved with. There are loads of datasets with relevance to epidemiology, public health, health economics that can be used. Also many of the datasets for pharma company sponsored studies are available for scientific research. Look at Vivli, YODA, and ClinicalStudyDataRequest.com. Merck and BMS have their own data sharing websites too.

There are also free datasets available for analysis. Take for example NHANES. This was generated by the US government and available for anyone to download and analyze.

I would first start out by looking to see what data is available and formulate a specific hypothesis. Then check to see what else has previously been published. You'll need to assemble a team to help, preferably including a biostatistician and a PI.

 

[pazzer2]

Here are a few more.....there are loads of datasets out there

NIMH Data Archive

NDA

nda.nih.gov

Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

ADNI | ACCESS DATA

adni.loni.usc.edu

NIAAA Data Archive

NIAAA Data Archive | National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Data Archive (NIAAADA) is a data repository that houses and shares human subjects data generated by NIAAA-funded research.

www.niaaa.nih.gov

OpenNeuro

OpenNeuro

openneuro.org

COVID Collaborative

N3C - Home