Medical School Research for IM subspecialties

[Chromium Surfer]

M3 here considering IM and then fellowship in Cards/GI/CC.

I know the prevailing wisdom is that while research is important you still need to have good board scores and clinical grades in third year. However I have also heard that research is very important for matching into these IM fellowships as well.

My question is if a student completes a research year doing GI research for a year in medical school and then maybe only one or two papers in residency, would their application be looked down upon because the majority of their GI research was completed during medical school?

Basically I am wondering if fellowships prefer to see major productivity during residency? Or if it is similar to med school where being productive during a research year or two can make a big difference even if you did not do a ton of research in undergrad?

Thank you for reading!

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[GoSpursGo]

Research is research and pubs are pubs. If you bank some papers now that will definitely help you later, though I think most would say that even the most competitive IM subspecialties would see having a couple of full manuscripts as plenty of research (assuming they aren't trash case reports). In general, taking a full research year to set you up for fellowship down the road seems like overkill.

 

[Chromium Surfer]

Research is research and pubs are pubs. If you bank some papers now that will definitely help you later, though I think most would say that even the most competitive IM subspecialties would see having a couple of full manuscripts as plenty of research (assuming they aren't trash case reports). In general, taking a full research year to set you up for fellowship down the road seems like overkill.

Thank you for your response! I have one first author pub and another second author pub in an unrelated field(epi) from doing a couple research years before med school. I found it much more challenging to do research during med school though so only managed to complete one first author pub in the field to a journal with low IF and am like a 7th author on another paper in a journal with a higher IF. I did get a research award from school and also did an oral presentation at a national specialty conference as well.

However with step 1 being P/F now and no guarantee that I can score high on Step 2, it feels that since I already have an interest in research that this is the safe play and a way to hedge my bets a bit. I am still early in third year but basically have found myself just below H for a couple rotations now so I feel like being in the top 1 and maybe 2 quartiles is out of the cards for me. Do you still think its an overkill?

 

[GoSpursGo]

Thank you for your response! I have one first author pub and another second author pub in an unrelated field(epi) from doing a couple research years before med school. I found it much more challenging to do research during med school though so only managed to complete one first author pub in the field to a journal with low IF and am like a 7th author on another paper in a journal with a higher IF. I did get a research award from school and also did an oral presentation at a national specialty conference as well.

However with step 1 being P/F now and no guarantee that I can score high on Step 2, it feels that since I already have an interest in research that this is the safe play and a way to hedge my bets a bit. I am still early in third year but basically have found myself just below H for a couple rotations now so I feel like being in the top 1 and maybe 2 quartiles is out of the cards for me. Do you still think its an overkill?

I think with 4 publications, two first author and a research award, you're about as strong as possible from a research perspective without taking an extra year.

I don't think your med school quartile is really going to matter when it comes time for fellowship. If the onus for getting into a competitive fellowship shifts from step 1 to step 2, no amount of publications isn't going to overcome that. Do well on step 2.

 

[Chromium Surfer]

I think with 4 publications, two first author and a research award, you're about as strong as possible from a research perspective without taking an extra year.

I don't think your med school quartile is really going to matter when it comes time for fellowship. If the onus for getting into a competitive fellowship shifts from step 1 to step 2, no amount of publications isn't going to overcome that. Do well on step 2.

Yeah the goal is to do as well as I can on step 2 haha. I wish I could guarantee that would be the case but hopefully things fall that way.

My rationale was thinking that more research could help me get into the best residency that I could especially if I only did average or slightly below average on Step 2. I also planned to do some significant volunteering and engage in leadership as well to make this a research/gap year while networking with attending and at conferences.

I have heard that the better your residency the easier it is to match into fellowship. I did not think that med school quartile mattered for fellowship but others have mentioned this is a factor for residency selection.

 

[Starbuxian]

I have heard that the better your residency the easier it is to match into fellowship. I did not think that med school quartile mattered for fellowship but others have mentioned this is a factor for residency selection.

I believe med school quartile does matter for residency selection (it's disclosed on the MSPE) but for fellowship I don't it matters. There, making the right contacts is paramount. At least that's my understanding.

 

[Redpancreas]

Not really advice for OP so I’ll keep it short but just wanted to comment that the notion of doing a research year in medical school to do an IM subspecialty is crazy and illustrates one of the things wrong with post Step-1 P/F era where every medical school is telling their students to do research and every Jack and Jill from M1-4 has emailed me re: research. I wish we could give medical students something else to focus on. I hope this is something the LCME is looking at.
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As for advice, OP I’d really advise against doing that. Don’t put the cart before the horse. Do well in 3rd year, do well on Step 2, and match a good IM program.

 

[aldol16]

Depends on the specialty. Most IM programs will not care about the number of publications you have - as long as you have been involved in research in some stage, that will be okay for the vast majority of IM programs. Now if you want to aim for the Harvards and Stanfords of the world, it would behoove you to have some publications in whatever field of IM you desire. I would not take a research year just to get that though.

For fellowship, you are expected to have some research during residency (can get med students to help you with that) but at the end of the day, it will come down to who goes to bat for you when the time comes. Most fellowships are not competitive (that is my understanding), although again if you want the Harvards or Stanfords of the world, then you're going to have to find a way to pump out some papers during residency.