Post by Admin on Jul 8, 2014 9:12:04 GMT -5
Clinical Research
Clinical research means you will be interacting mainly with MD’s, and that your mentor will most likely be an MD also. You will also be in more of a hospital setting, as it will be necessary for you to consent patients for clinical trials, and also to have access to patient records. You will be doing A LOT of statistical work here, so be prepared! Remember all those annoying statistics from USMLE1? Cohort studies, pilot studies, multivariate analysis, logistic regression models, etc.
This is also an excellent preparation for publishing, and also provides a setting whereby you will be interacting with doctors in the same field you are interested in applying for in the Match. Therefore, it is a wonderful chance to get great letters of recommendation (from EVERYONE you work with, including the head of department and attendings), and also to do an observership at the same time you are doing clinical research, if possible. What this means is that during the day you might attend grand rounds, observe surgeries, or round on patients with the residents in between working on your research.
Basic Science Research and Lab Skills
Basic research entails spending time in a lab setting, and learning the basics of being a scientist (unless of course you have previous experience in a research lab, which is excellent). For most FMGs, however, this would probably be the first time in a lab. You might find that your principal investigator or PI (who will be responsible for helping you learn and set up your own experiment) will be a PhD, an MD, or both! It would be very valuable to have your PI be an MD, as getting a letter of recommendation from a doctor of medicine is much more beneficial for the Match. The basics of learning to work in a lab environment, and eventually take on your own research will most likely include anything ranging from cloning and stem cell culture, to translational and transcriptional analysis of gene and protein expression by PCR techniques and Western Blotting. Having a good basic science background (USMLE1 would be a huge help here) will be beneficial. Most likely, you will be asked to remain in research for at least 6 months-1 year. The reason for this being that it takes at least 2-3 months in the beginning to really become familiar with the lab techniques and therefore be able to produce consistent results. The advantage here is that once you have mastered many lab techniques (even if you have not had a chance to actually publish a paper in peer-reviewed journal) it will make it easier for you during residency if you want to publish in order to obtain a competitive fellowship. This is especially important for those of you pursuing an Internal Medicine residency and hoping to go on to a fellowship such as Heme/Oncology, Cardiology, GI, or Nephrology.The many advantages of research include: Broadening your knowledge in an area that was very rarely visited during our education. Remember: There’s a huge difference between people who read the books and people who write the books. Improving your CV. Research is definitely highly regarded, especially by academic (university) programs. Increasing your chances of obtaining a residency in the field of your choice (which ideally should be the field you do research in) Improving your chances of getting into a university hospital for residency (if that is important to your future career plans)Increasing your chances of obtaining a competitive fellowship after residency (especially in Internal Medicine specialties)
The disadvantages include: You might find it very hard to find a paid research position, and depending on how long you will be in research, it can get very expensive. You need to plan on being in research for at least 4-5 months before the Match opens, so that you can depend on getting good letters of recommendation in time for the Match (people will not be able to write a good quality LOR unless they get to know you and how you work). Keep in mind that a LOR that is written in a very standard and non-personal way does not hold much value in the Match and can actually do more harm than benefit. Many programs require clinical experience in the US for at least 3-6 months in order to apply to those specific programs, and so doing research instead of trying to find clinical ‘hands-on’ experience might exclude you from being able to apply to some programs. Your chances might decrease in specialties other than your research field. For example, if you’re interested in surgery and have done surgical research, and possibly published surgical papers, the Internal Medicine programs will doubt your interest in IM. This is less true in lab research though, because it’s all basic science.
Usually, research without publication will not be as highly regarded. At the same time, many people spend time in research and then find out that they don’t have publishable data, or the project wasn’t well designed in the first place. So, after working for a couple of months on a certain project, you may realize that you have to abandon this project and start on another one. It can get really frustrating. That’s why we mentioned earlier that you have to stay for a decent amount of time in research (a minimum of one year)
Postdoc positions and Research fellowships abroad
A postdoctoral scholar ("postdoc") is an individual holding a doctoral degree (MD, MBBCh) who is engaged in a temporary period of mentored research and/or scholarly training for the purpose of acquiring the professional skills needed to pursue a career path of his or her choosing.
Clinical research means you will be interacting mainly with MD’s, and that your mentor will most likely be an MD also. You will also be in more of a hospital setting, as it will be necessary for you to consent patients for clinical trials, and also to have access to patient records. You will be doing A LOT of statistical work here, so be prepared! Remember all those annoying statistics from USMLE1? Cohort studies, pilot studies, multivariate analysis, logistic regression models, etc.
This is also an excellent preparation for publishing, and also provides a setting whereby you will be interacting with doctors in the same field you are interested in applying for in the Match. Therefore, it is a wonderful chance to get great letters of recommendation (from EVERYONE you work with, including the head of department and attendings), and also to do an observership at the same time you are doing clinical research, if possible. What this means is that during the day you might attend grand rounds, observe surgeries, or round on patients with the residents in between working on your research.
Basic Science Research and Lab Skills
Basic research entails spending time in a lab setting, and learning the basics of being a scientist (unless of course you have previous experience in a research lab, which is excellent). For most FMGs, however, this would probably be the first time in a lab. You might find that your principal investigator or PI (who will be responsible for helping you learn and set up your own experiment) will be a PhD, an MD, or both! It would be very valuable to have your PI be an MD, as getting a letter of recommendation from a doctor of medicine is much more beneficial for the Match. The basics of learning to work in a lab environment, and eventually take on your own research will most likely include anything ranging from cloning and stem cell culture, to translational and transcriptional analysis of gene and protein expression by PCR techniques and Western Blotting. Having a good basic science background (USMLE1 would be a huge help here) will be beneficial. Most likely, you will be asked to remain in research for at least 6 months-1 year. The reason for this being that it takes at least 2-3 months in the beginning to really become familiar with the lab techniques and therefore be able to produce consistent results. The advantage here is that once you have mastered many lab techniques (even if you have not had a chance to actually publish a paper in peer-reviewed journal) it will make it easier for you during residency if you want to publish in order to obtain a competitive fellowship. This is especially important for those of you pursuing an Internal Medicine residency and hoping to go on to a fellowship such as Heme/Oncology, Cardiology, GI, or Nephrology.The many advantages of research include: Broadening your knowledge in an area that was very rarely visited during our education. Remember: There’s a huge difference between people who read the books and people who write the books. Improving your CV. Research is definitely highly regarded, especially by academic (university) programs. Increasing your chances of obtaining a residency in the field of your choice (which ideally should be the field you do research in) Improving your chances of getting into a university hospital for residency (if that is important to your future career plans)Increasing your chances of obtaining a competitive fellowship after residency (especially in Internal Medicine specialties)
The disadvantages include: You might find it very hard to find a paid research position, and depending on how long you will be in research, it can get very expensive. You need to plan on being in research for at least 4-5 months before the Match opens, so that you can depend on getting good letters of recommendation in time for the Match (people will not be able to write a good quality LOR unless they get to know you and how you work). Keep in mind that a LOR that is written in a very standard and non-personal way does not hold much value in the Match and can actually do more harm than benefit. Many programs require clinical experience in the US for at least 3-6 months in order to apply to those specific programs, and so doing research instead of trying to find clinical ‘hands-on’ experience might exclude you from being able to apply to some programs. Your chances might decrease in specialties other than your research field. For example, if you’re interested in surgery and have done surgical research, and possibly published surgical papers, the Internal Medicine programs will doubt your interest in IM. This is less true in lab research though, because it’s all basic science.
Usually, research without publication will not be as highly regarded. At the same time, many people spend time in research and then find out that they don’t have publishable data, or the project wasn’t well designed in the first place. So, after working for a couple of months on a certain project, you may realize that you have to abandon this project and start on another one. It can get really frustrating. That’s why we mentioned earlier that you have to stay for a decent amount of time in research (a minimum of one year)
Postdoc positions and Research fellowships abroad
A postdoctoral scholar ("postdoc") is an individual holding a doctoral degree (MD, MBBCh) who is engaged in a temporary period of mentored research and/or scholarly training for the purpose of acquiring the professional skills needed to pursue a career path of his or her choosing.