A Research Partnership Model that Works - Bringing a Student's Interest in Clinical Research to Fruition (A Case Example)
Paul W Gunn*1, Matthew L Hansen1, David C Kaelber2,1Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, 44106, U.S.A., 2Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02139, U.S.A.
Purpose
Although medical educators and medical students generally agree that student-conducted research is a valuable component of medical education, many students never participate in meaningful research during their medical school years. We describe our experience—a collaboration between two medical students and a faculty member—as an example of a successful model for medical student research.
Methods
Our collaboration began when two medical students (pwg & mlh) contacted a faculty member (dck) to express interest in clinical research. After a series of brief meetings, a study was chosen and designed. The faculty member secured IRB approval and obtained the data. The medical students performed the data analysis. All three investigators collaborated to prepare the results for publication.
Results
We performed a retrospective cohort study involving 14187 patients. The topic was underdetection of hypertension in children, an important public health problem that had not been previously reported. This study was completed in approximately 3 months by two medical students and a faculty member working during their spare time. The results were accepted for presentation at a national meeting and a manuscript is currently under review.
Conclusion
With appropriate mentorship, medical students can participate in meaningful clinical research even while attending to regular clinical responsibilities. In our case, successful collaboration was attributable to a symbiotic faculty-student relationship—the students contributed curiosity and manpower for the labor-intensive portions of the project, while the faculty member provided realistic project and scope expectations, expertise, resources, and frequent instruction in research methodology.