<p>I am a premed student and currently a sophomore in college. Last summer, I shadowed a surgeon for 8 weeks in the hospital and in his office. This summer, I will be volunteering as a clinical research assistant in a hospital. I was just wondering if this clinical research counts as "clinical experience" or "research experience." I also want to know what else I should do over the next couple of summers before applying to medical schools.</p>
<p>When you fill out your AMCAS application, you make the decision how to classify each experience. If your position is mostly personal contact with patients, designate it as clinical experience; if your position is mostly clerical work, data analysis or something that does not involve direct patient contact, count it as research.</p>
<p>For the next 2 summers: more research, more shadowing (you need to observe specialties other than just surgery), more clinical and non-clinical volunteering. </p>
<p>Okay! Thanks for your reply!</p>
<p>How does someone get a clinical research shadowing position? How do you find out who is doing clinical research in your area?</p>
<p>what do you mean by clinical research shadowing position? </p>
<p>do you mean observing someone who does clinical research? that could be a variety of people–MD, RN, PhD, etc–and they may have a variety of responsibilities–research, clinic, teaching, etc. so if you want to observe a researcher performing clinical research, i imagine your best bet would be to contact someone who is doing research that interests you and just ask them via polite email. you could probably find out who is doing exciting research at a nearby hospital/your school’s SOM by checking out the news section on their website.</p>
<p>do you mean observing someone who is a professor at a medical school? they are often involved with clinical research. they are usually clinical faculty at the SOM and probably spend an appreciable amount of time in clinic or similar clinical activities. i imagine it would be more appropriate for you to shadow them in clinic than in the lab, but that’s just a hunch. if you find someone who is actively working on a clinical trial, perhaps you could shadow them in clinic during a day when they see/enroll/follow-up with the patients in the clinical trial.</p>
<p>was position just a kind of random word choice? because shadowing isn’t really a “position.” it’s not paid, it’s not technically volunteer, it’s not for credit, etc etc. it’s really just you and a doc agreeing to meet and observe. there might be a more formal organization of shadowing opportunities via your school or premed program or honors college or whatever, but regardless, i wouldn’t really call it a “position.”</p>
<p>just some food for thought. good luck!</p>
<p>From what I know based on D’s clinical research experience, there is no “clinical experience” component in clinical research. “Clinical research” expeince does not include any of the diagnostical procedures, taking patient history, etc. However, you need to see what your position of a “clinical research assistant” will include. </p>
<p>^I think that sort of thing depend on where you’re working. At my clinical research, I interact directly with patients and test them myself, as well as take down their history.</p>
<p>@kristin5792 I totally understand and appreciate your comments. My wrong in using the word “position” - way off. I think I was thinking of it more like what @dina4119 mentioned that the researcher was the one collecting the information from patients directly etc.</p>
<p>Other than calling up the SOM (great idea thank you) I don’t know how at a hospital you could find out who is involved in doing clinical research for a student to even just sit down and talk to for a bit.</p>
<p>Thank you for the suggestions.</p>
<p>You could start by doing a search in PubMed. Use the name of a local hospital as the search term… This will turn up a list of physicians/researchers who have published from that hospital. Then look at the paper titles and read the abstracts, you’ll be able to easily tell if they are doing clinical research.</p>
<p>(In fact, you could even build a more detailed search using keywords like patients plus the hospital name. You could even include a particular medical specialty if you have a specific strong area of interest. PubMed has tons of search options, but it’s not the easiest interface to use. I know because I work with every day.)</p>
<p>Another option would be to go to the SOM’s list of faculty and use those names (one at a time) to do a PubMed search to see what various individuals are doing. (D2 just used this option to build a list of research mentors for when she starts med school this fall. She also used this option in high school to find a research group to volunteer with during the summer. And again after she graduated college to find a research group she wanted to work with as a research asst. Once she identified a specific individuals/research groups, she made email contact with them. Worked great for her! ) </p>
<p>It will depend on the project itself and responsibilities for the 'assistant"
Some clinical research will not involve any actual clinical experiences even for the First Author. </p>
<p>In regard to Research at Med. School, it should be related to your specialty. Very few know their specialty when they start. Even the ones who ended up going for specialty of their dream way back years ago, most likely than not went back and forth considering few others while in Medical School. So little is known before you actully start. And even in pre-clinical years, while many have a rough idea using primarily theirr imagination and how each specialty fits with their personality, many will not know for sure until they actually try. That is the purpose of clinical years. </p>
<p>I’m not sure my kids know what clinical research really entails so I thought speaking with those who are involved would be a place to start.</p>
<p>The SOM in our area has researchers but it’s wet lab research and they both do research there but it’s not clinical. I guess that’s where they should start and I will also try the pubmed option.</p>
<p>Is there a name/position of someone at a hospital whom the research has to go through. A person who would know all the clinical research going on? Is there such a person/position that gives approval?</p>
<p>Thanks again for the input - very helpful.</p>
<p>Any research that involves humans requires approval from the med school’s/hospital’s Board of Ethics. The chairperson of the ethics board would know of every clinical research program being conducted, but I’m not sure that would be a productive place to start. (The chairperson has many other duties and is a busy, often high level, administrator.)</p>
<p>I’d start with your SOM’s website’s news section. What are they writing about and excited to share with others? That’s probably an area they’re at least somewhat known for currently.</p>
<p>I’d look at the accompanying university’s undergrad research website or other database of available lab positions for undergrads. If it’s not on the website, an advisor probably knows. There’s a good chance various researchers at the SOM would be looking for student assistants. </p>
<p>If there’s a particular area/specialty of interest, I’d cold email some (5?) docs who practice at the SOM (thus are likely clinical faculty/some level of a professor of medicine/most likely involved in some research themselves) and ask to shadow them. Then it would be appropriate to ask about clinical research.</p>
<p>I’ve personally done all of these things and have been successful with them.</p>