Valuable Research... Clinical or Bench?

[Thoroughbred_Med]

In the light of medical school, do ADCOMs look differently upon a student's publication depending on what level the research is? I have worked with a PGY-2 family med resident over the past year on a clinical trial dealing with CVD interventions. I will be listed as co-author when the study is published later this year in American Family Physician.

Personally, I am very proud of this research because of the nuances I contributed to the study but will ADCOMS have mixed feelings about this experience because it is not bench research?

I am currently a sophomore and AM looking to get involved with cell biology research this semester, along with a summer research program, so hopefully I can make a meaningful impact with this kind of research before I apply in 2015.

I am shooting for top 25 schools when I apply. What do y'all think about the significance of publishing and conducting research with clinical vs. bench? I feel like a co-author on either project would portray the same accomplishments: original research, testing hypotheses... the only difference I can think of would be that I haven't conducted lab experiments..

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[487806]

In the light of medical school, do ADCOMs look differently upon a student's publication depending on what level the research is? I have worked with a PGY-2 family med resident over the past year on a clinical trial dealing with CVD interventions. I will be listed as co-author when the study is published later this year in American Family Physician.

Personally, I am very proud of this research because of the nuances I contributed to the study but will ADCOMS have mixed feelings about this experience because it is not bench research?

I am currently a sophomore and AM looking to get involved with cell biology research this semester, along with a summer research program, so hopefully I can make a meaningful impact with this kind of research before I apply in 2015.

I am shooting for top 25 schools when I apply. What do y'all think about the significance of publishing and conducting research with clinical vs. bench? I feel like a co-author on either project would portray the same accomplishments: original research, testing hypotheses... the only difference I can think of would be that I haven't conducted lab experiments..

It really doesn't matter the type of research you do as long as it is evidence-based. With that said, some schools do prefer basic science research, but that doesn't mean your app will be thrown in the trash for doing clinical research.

 

[Thoroughbred_Med]

This was definitely evidence-based... Thanks for that reply Agent B!

 

[dcamkl1]

A generalization is that basic (bench) research is more difficult and tedious than clinical research. Additionally, clinical research is a lot more easier to publish than basic. It's not 100% true, but this is the sense I've gotten from browsing around SDN, in addition to my own personal experience in a basic research lab.

However, I don't think it matters all that much, especially since you're presumably not applying MD/PhD. What matters is that you are enjoying it and learning a great deal, and from your description it looks like you are.

It's been said over and over here on SDN: you just need to be able to talk about your research clearly and effectively in your interviews. The other little things do not matter so much.

 

[SN12357]

A generalization is that basic (bench) research is more difficult and tedious than clinical research. Additionally, clinical research is a lot more easier to publish than basic. It's not 100% true, but this is the sense I've gotten from browsing around SDN, in addition to my own personal experience in a basic research lab.

However, I don't think it matters all that much, especially since you're presumably not applying MD/PhD. What matters is that you are enjoying it and learning a great deal, and from your description it looks like you are.

It's been said over and over here on SDN: you just need to be able to talk about your research clearly and effectively in your interviews. The other little things do not matter so much.

I don't think it's at all true that good clinical research is easier than bench work. Good research is extremely difficult, period. The part about clinical research being easier to publish in general may be true. I don't know much about the publishing environment for basic science but the proliferation of crap clinical research is really frustrating. But somehow I doubt that the explosion of new and/or shady journals is somehow unique to clinical research.

It is true that the clinical research timeline can be faster. If you have high-quality dataset and an experienced team you can start pumping out papers simultaneously or in sequence, something that I understand is less common in basic science where you'd have to run new experiments a lot of the time. And the high quality clinical datasets get used for literally decades of work, so a new person coming into the team can start working on actual analyses (and manuscripts) right away if they're given access to the data.

Especially in pre-allo there are a lot more people who have experience with bench research than high-quality non-lab-based clinical research, and I see a lot of misconceptions. So it goes. My clinical research background has been extremely well received so far on the interview trail (and I'm assuming contributed to my getting the interviews in the first place, as it's by far the strongest part of my application).

 

[PREMED1992]

Clinical research also usually allows you patient contact-that can be an added bonus for someone short on clinical experience

 

[boboyahoo]

Some professor told me that if I could get clinical research, it would look better because I actually worked with a medical staff in confrontation to a research professor; especially if I might look into md/phd. I didn't really find any importance in this since my PI later told me that wasn't necessary (and he knows lots of profs that are md). Just be glad that you have this much experience already 2nd year and keep doing what you do. Schools might just care about that publication for which I am envying you at this point

 

[Thoroughbred_Med]

Clinical research also usually allows you patient contact-that can be an added bonus for someone short on clinical experience

Oh, most definitely! I would recommend clinical research for any premed, but most certainly for freshman and sophomores. The ability to gain patient-contact hours is useful, and extremely interesting in that it gives you an insight medical statistics and outcomes of various treatments/procedures.

However, considering that I already have 300+ hours of patient contact through clinical and OR shadowing I will probably only state my hours from patient contact for total research hours.

It has been a very valuable experience to me through my freshman and sophomore year but I am antsy to start applying my basic science knowledge with bench research!

 

[DielsAlder]

From my impression, medical schools consider all research essentially equal since you are engaging in a scholarly activity. The only exception is if you are applying MD/PhD, then bench research is what really counts. Also, congrats on the publication!