Who to ask for case reports?

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Hi,

What is the feasibility of an M1 who is a decent writer (but not very much clinical knowledge) getting some case reports in before the end of the year? Who is generally the best people to ask for these case reports. I would guess IM residents who are trying for cards/GI/heme onc but maybe this is off. Could I try writing one and then just getting the stamp of approval from resident or attending?

Note: the school has its own residencies and is MD (I’ve heard MD schools usually have more research opportunities), however, I don’t think there is a ton of interesting pathology and not a ton of focus on academic medicine.

Lastly, what is better for radiology, neuro, academic IM
-junior AOA
-5+ publications

Thanks in advance

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[Doctor-S]

Hi,

What is the feasibility of an M1 who is a decent writer (but not very much clinical knowledge) getting some case reports in before the end of the year? Who is generally the best people to ask for these case reports. I would guess IM residents who are trying for cards/GI/heme onc but maybe this is off. Could I try writing one and then just getting the stamp of approval from resident or attending?

Note: the school has its own residencies and is MD (I’ve heard MD schools usually have more research opportunities), however, I don’t think there is a ton of interesting pathology and not a ton of focus on academic medicine.

Lastly, what is better for radiology, neuro, academic IM
-junior AOA
-5+ publications

Thanks in advance

1. Case Report:

You can approach residents and attendings (rads, neuro, IM) and ask them if they have any interesting (or novel) cases that could used as a case report. Ask around.

If a doc at your school has a case, and you're interested in preparing a case report about that doc's patient, make sure you comply with professional/legal/hospital/ethical obligations (e.g., HIPAA authorization, IRB, etc.).

It's advisable to obtain meaningful feedback about the substance of your proposed case report (from the doctor who suggested the patient's case to you, or from someone else with sufficient expertise in that particular type of case). Why? By your own admission, you do not yet have "very much clinical knowledge" as an M1 at this time. So, you may not yet have sufficient knowledge and/or expertise to identify clinical aspects of the patient's case that are novel and unique, or problematic, or noteworthy, or that merit further study, etc.

Do you want to publish the case report? If so, in which journal? It's advisable to review case reports previously published in the journal to see useful examples/formats for your own proposed case report. In addition, some journals may require patient informed consent for the case report before the case report would be accepted for publication in the journal. Make sure you carefully read the journal's instructions/guidelines for authors, and comply with them.

Please do not neglect your M1 studies. In other words, make sure you're on solid ground in your first-year coursework before taking on additional time-consuming commitments as an M1. You will have plenty of time to get involved in different projects as a medical student.

2. Radiology, Neuro, Academic IM Match:

As you might suspect, it depends on the specialty and the program. Check the selection criteria for each specialty/program. Do well on tests (Step 1/CK), MSPE, clerkship grades in specialty, LORs in the specialty, strong personal statement, grades, aways, etc. Anyway, you get the idea. AOA is good, even though not all schools offer AOA to students. Publications are good, especially in the specialty.

 

[Goro]

1. Case Report:

Do you want to publish the case report? If so, in which journal? It's advisable to review case reports previously published in the journal to see useful examples/formats for your own proposed case report. In addition, some journals may require patient informed consent for the case report before the case report would be accepted for publication in the journal. Make sure you carefully read the journal's instructions/guidelines for authors, and comply with them.

To add to my learned colleagues comments, it also depends upon which audience you want to target.

Say you have a case report for a rare skin cancer. Do you target oncology, dermatology, or even, say, medical genetics?

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

1. Case Report:

You can approach residents and attendings (rads, neuro, IM) and ask them if they have any interesting (or novel) cases that could used as a case report. Ask around.

If a doc at your school has a case, and you're interested in preparing a case report about that doc's patient, make sure you comply with professional/legal/hospital/ethical obligations (e.g., HIPAA authorization, IRB, etc.).

It's advisable to obtain meaningful feedback about the substance of your proposed case report (from the doctor who suggested the patient's case to you, or from someone else with sufficient expertise in that particular type of case). Why? By your own admission, you do not yet have "very much clinical knowledge" as an M1 at this time. So, you may not yet have sufficient knowledge and/or expertise to identify clinical aspects of the patient's case that are novel and unique, or problematic, or noteworthy, or that merit further study, etc.

Do you want to publish the case report? If so, in which journal? It's advisable to review case reports previously published in the journal to see useful examples/formats for your own proposed case report. In addition, some journals may require patient informed consent for the case report before the case report would be accepted for publication in the journal. Make sure you carefully read the journal's instructions/guidelines for authors, and comply with them.

Please do not neglect your M1 studies. In other words, make sure you're on solid ground in your first-year coursework before taking on additional time-consuming commitments as an M1. You will have plenty of time to get involved in different projects as a medical student.

2. Radiology, Neuro, Academic IM Match:

As you might suspect, it depends on the specialty and the program. Check the selection criteria for each specialty/program. Do well on tests (Step 1/CK), MSPE, clerkship grades in specialty, LORs in the specialty, strong personal statement, grades, aways, etc. Anyway, you get the idea. AOA is good, even though not all schools offer AOA to students. Publications are good, especially in the specialty.

To add to my learned colleagues comments, it also depends upon which audience you want to target.

Say you have a case report for a rare skin cancer. Do you target oncology, dermatology, or even, say, medical genetics?

Thank you both! Appreciate it!

 

[GoSpursGo]

In general, I would not aim for case reports. Instead try to find a good mentor who can plug you into a good research group. You may not be aware of them, but there are always strong groups at an academic medical center. You’ll need to prove your worth by contributing to something more meaningful first, but if you can deliver you’ll start getting opportunities for some quick easy projects like case reports. But asking around blindly for case reports will likely not be fruitful, especially when you don’t have clinical knowledge anyways.

RE your hypothetical, it’s pretty arbitrary. Most jAOA students will also have research anyways. Rads is significantly more competitive than neuro or academic IM though

 

[psyspy]

Not gonna lie AOA > everything, but all of them will have research too

 

[srirachamayonnaise]

Most journals don't accept case reports nowadays. The minimum they want is a case series (meaning more than 2 or 3 similar cases).

 

[GoSpursGo]

Most journals don't accept case reports nowadays. The minimum they want is a case series (meaning more than 2 or 3 similar cases).

It depends on your field and the novelty. But you do absolutely need a "hook" and why your case is adding to the literature beyond just being something rare.

 

[Medstart108]

Most journals don't accept case reports nowadays. The minimum they want is a case series (meaning more than 2 or 3 similar cases).

Not entirely true, there are plenty of journals that accept case reports. Most are lower impact or there are a proliferation of case report journals, one prominent example is BMJ Case Reports. Most of these journals are open access, with fees to publish. If you truly have a unique case or good images/videos etc some of the higher impact journals do publish them. Having a case series is nice, but very few journals will reject all case reports and only accept case series. Many of the highest impact journals have spun off some of their case series to sister journals or dedicated case report journals for example JACC: Case Reports. The best way to find out if a journal accepts case reports is to look at the instructions for authors and read carefully. Then, a good way of knowing your chances is to look at what the journal has published in its latest issue and see how many are case reports.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

How many professors/physicians should one ask for research at one time? I would feel a little less weird spamming a bunch of emails out if I wasn’t affiliated with the school/hospital. Could asking multiple people at one hurt (ie bad reputation)

 

[Hzreio]

How many professors/physicians should one ask for research at one time? I would feel a little less weird spamming a bunch of emails out if I wasn’t affiliated with the school/hospital. Could asking multiple people at one hurt (ie bad reputation)

Idk there’s no hard answer for this, so up to you, but mass cc/bcc’ing the whole department is probably not a great idea

 

[GoSpursGo]

How many professors/physicians should one ask for research at one time? I would feel a little less weird spamming a bunch of emails out if I wasn’t affiliated with the school/hospital. Could asking multiple people at one hurt (ie bad reputation)

I would start with the residency PD. Part of their job is recruiting med students to their residency program, so they may be aware of faculty with projects where they could use a med student's help.

If they are not helpful, then start systematically emailing say one person a week until you find someone. There really is no rush to start--finding the RIGHT mentor is worth spending an extra few weeks to find.