The Big WHY
Research is one of those confusing hidden parts of the medical world.
I thought I’d share my perspective on why it’s important to conduct research early on in your career. It’s not only an integral part of scientific development but a crucial determinant for residency abroad (in the USA, UK or elsewhere). Research is what distinguishes you from other applicants when applying to competitive residency programs. Not only this, it builds important communication skills (writing in particular), innovativeness, ability to critically think, and hands on lab skills. Furthermore, research will involve you in the clinical setting early on providing some valuable experience that’ll build both your confidence and expertise. Exposure to the clinical environment early on will allow you to gain insight into what you enjoy, and how you can propel your own career in that direction by networking. Yup. That word. NETWORKING. More than ever, networking has become a strategic tool to differentiate the efficient individuals from the hardworking ones. To emphasize, research is one of the best ways to build your network early; the more you connect with experts in your field, the more equipped you’ll be. Networking can help when you’re applying for residency programs, when you need letters of recommendation or simply when you want to shadow an expert already in the field. With research, you can connect to a whole new community of scientists. This will provide you more opportunities to work in the future and can be an asset to your CV. The more people you know within your relevant field of interest, the better. Apart from academic benefits, knowledge is one point I specifically wanted to highlight. Opening yourself to the world of research will allow you to build on your knowledge at an atomic level. This world is an intricate place, and a thirst for knowledge is an important requirement for research. As years go by, and you begin to write many publications (hopefully), don’t let your curiosity slip by because you’re too focused on the number of publications. It’s critical to keep this mindset. More knowledge will only make you a better, more informed physician. It will also contribute to the vast community of science that relies on day to day research to help solve some of the most imminent issues. For example, the COVID-19 vaccine, research is how our field of medicine develops new treatments and answers all the how’s and why’s. It focuses on a rational approach to solving medically relevant issues, whether that be on a microbiological level, an ethical or a clinical level. It gives a physician that path to be a part of the evolving scientific community.
The big question: How do you get involved early on?
One of the most effective ways to involve yourself is to learn about the basics of research first. There are many different types of research articles: Editorials, Case report, Case Series, Case Control, Cohort, RCT, and Meta Analysis. With that, there’s also different approaches to research, some are original articles, and others are descriptive analyses. The topic of the subject also differs, some perhaps epidemiological, and others experimental. All these concepts need to be understood at a basic level before approaching research. Next, read some example articles to get a feel of scientific literature. It’s overwhelming at first, but don’t worry, it gets better with practice. Lastly, prepare a CV. What’s that you say? A CV (Curriculum Vitae) is an educational resume. It gives an account of your educational program/achievements, extracurricular/volunteer experience, and your research experience. However, this limitation in knowledge and resources should never prevent or delay your process of getting involved early on. So how does it really work? The first objective is finding a PI (Principal Investigator), that’s usually a professor already working on some type of research in their lab, and they usually have students help. Another way would be to get involved in research that seniors at your college are conducting. That would require getting to know some people early on (a little tip, make sure to mention that you want your name mentioned in the research paper - authorship). Another way would be to do a research internship (paid or volunteer, there’s pros and cons to each) or an elective (you pay for it) at an institution. AKU offers this to students towards the end of the year. The electives at AKU are research based for first/second years. Usually, electives (the ones with clinical work) are taken around fourth year for clinical experience. Lastly, some universities have research societies as well (Dow has SoMR) whose main role is to help students with research, and mentor them through the process.
I personally did it in this way: I contacted a professor who had taught me in first year. I discussed with her the potential of getting involved, and an area of interest (be it a subject, ex. Pathology). She then referred me to another professor, and that’s where it started. The steps after that are more of a mentorship procedure since your supervisors and PIs will guide you through the process.
The problem is that most of the research isn’t advertised or open to the public, so you never really know who's doing what.
Accessing a large pool of scientific literature
The best way to find out the research professors are involved in is to write them an email asking them about their current research work, express your own interest and ask if they can provide some of their papers to read. The reason I say this is because most research is inaccessible to the public unless it is purchased. And Yes. It’s expensive. So, the best way would be to get an idea through abstracts (summary of the research which is for free), or contact the author to give you access. Nevertheless, not all research is purchased, there’s loads of free articles. Take the time to do your hunt to find the right articles. Although there are ways to access research articles for free (like websites), I won’t recommend them for the sake of ethical and legal issues.
When to get involved?
Start in first year! That’s when you’ll have the most time. The earlier the better. More exposure to this field will only help, not be a drawback!!
I advise starting off with a group of 2-3 peers you highly trust to help in your first research. You can all work together to write the first manuscript.
I hope that provides a good introduction to research, why we do it, and how to get involved. I will hopefully write more articles to help students in their research endeavors as I feel I didn’t know where the right resources were when I first started. There’s lots of topics to discuss like choosing an area of interest, going through legal forms, talking about ethical issues, data analysis software, referencing and writing the paper.
Until next time,
Stay curious!
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