Should I avoid non-surgical research if I'm interested in a surgical specialty?

[and 99 others]

I have had several research projects fall into my lap with varying degrees of time investment. The problem is most of them are in fields like medical humanities and public health, which I enjoy and even got some summer research funding to conduct a scoping review, but I am ultimately interested in pursuing a surgical subspecialty. I'm wondering if I should just cut off these non-surgical projects early and focus my efforts on finding surgical research (which is not impossible but hasn't come across my path as easily as the others). Or if the publications from these other projects would be worthwhile regardless

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[GoSpursGo]

It always depends on what your opportunity cost is. If this is time you could be devoting to a defined surgical project, then you should focus on the surgical project. However, if the decision is between doing these projects or doing nothing, then you should do what you have while continuing to look for a surgical project.

These projects will be meaningful regardless. However, if you're serious about doing a surgical specialty then you need to get a mentor in the field who can connect you with those kinds of projects.

 

[PathNeuroIMorFM]

Research in field of interest > Other research >>>>>>> No research

Alternatively:

Productive research >>>>>> Non-productive research > No Research

Ideally you want productive research in your field of interest, otherwise, just do anything productive. It will be okay.

 

[catnip12]

Do surg specialty research. Drop the others.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Depends on which leads to more publications

 

[Redpancreas]

I have had several research projects fall into my lap with varying degrees of time investment. The problem is most of them are in fields like medical humanities and public health, which I enjoy and even got some summer research funding to conduct a scoping review, but I am ultimately interested in pursuing a surgical subspecialty. I'm wondering if I should just cut off these non-surgical projects early and focus my efforts on finding surgical research (which is not impossible but hasn't come across my path as easily as the others). Or if the publications from these other projects would be worthwhile regardless

For the competitive surgical subspecialties, you will need to have a few first/second author experiences in the field of your choice as in 3-5. Once you have that, you've hit a threshold for interviews and then you can choose to add competitiveness by either having more even more 1st author experiences (which would probably take time) or by doing other easily attainable research which could then count towards your overall pub count and maybe looked at favorably by the algorithms some programs filter applicants by.

 

[and 99 others]

To follow up on this, what if the research were under the purview of a surgical specialty but not clinical research. For example, for trauma surgery: projects like interviews with survivors of violence to determine medical legal needs, quantifying the risk associated with certain medical legal needs, analyzing the activity and impact of law enforcement activity in the emergency room, etc.

Stuff that isn't directly related to patient outcomes related to surgery itself but the factors outside of the hospital that impact people needing surgery in the first place and long term outcomes of people who experience physical and mental trauma. If i were applying for a surgical specialty, would this sort of research be seen as non-surgical work?

 

[GoSpursGo]

To follow up on this, what if the research were under the purview of a surgical specialty but not clinical research. For example, for trauma surgery: projects like interviews with survivors of violence to determine medical legal needs, quantifying the risk associated with certain medical legal needs, analyzing the activity and impact of law enforcement activity in the emergency room, etc.

Stuff that isn't directly related to patient outcomes related to surgery itself but the factors outside of the hospital that impact people needing surgery in the first place and long term outcomes of people who experience physical and mental trauma. If i were applying for a surgical specialty, would this sort of research be seen as non-surgical work?

Yes this would count if under supervision of surgeon

 

[and 99 others]

Yes this would count if under supervision of surgeon

Thanks! Just wondering why would whether or not it's under the supervision of a surgeon be the determining factor? What if the same exact research was being conducted but under the supervision of an ER doc?

and also how would it be reflected that the research was done under the supervision of a surgeon? just via the affiliations section on relevant pubs or do you report their specialty elsewhere on the app?

 

[GoSpursGo]

Thanks! Just wondering why would whether or not it's under the supervision of a surgeon be the determining factor? What if the same exact research was being conducted but under the supervision of an ER doc?

and also how would it be reflected that the research was done under the supervision of a surgeon? just via the affiliations section on relevant pubs or do you report their specialty elsewhere on the app?

It matters who you are working under because you need specialty-specific research. Your PI doesn't have to be the senior author (though that makes it even easier), but they need to be somewhere in the author list.

The best way to show how the research is specialty-specific is to have your PI write a LOR for you and discuss the role you played in these projects.