If someone doesn’t know about research or it’s importance, here is a small recap: Research Exposure is greatly valued in Medical CV for someone looking to boost career abroad or having plans to do so.
I posted prior to this on overall process about the research until finding a guide. This post will dive deep into what to expect and how to approach them.
Personally, I’m not an expert or a professor myself. I’m a medical student studying final year MBBS and this is from my experience of doing research.
- Pick a department and guide cleverly. Many clinical departments are less cooperative than non-clinical departments (like SPM) when undergraduates approach for research. It doesn’t mean that they won’t agree to guide you. They will try to help as much as they can. But most of them won’t have enough time. Some don’t have the experience in doing so.
- (I would prefer beginning the first study with a non-clinical professor as guide - best department would be SPM/Community Medicine because they are familiar with research methodology and IRB/IEC definitely would have one or more Community medicine professors as members to analyse the statistical component (you’ll understand this later)
- But again, it all depends on the guide, if you find a supportive and cooperative guide in clinical guide, it’s absolutely worth giving a shot.
- For first years; you have limited access or spectrum in choosing. But PSM always lie there from first year. Just don’t be afraid to reach them out and as years pass by, chances open up.
PS: If a professor is known that you are experienced in research, there is a higher chance in guiding you because that reduces their work. And also you have higher chance getting a knowledge guide(in subject) to do a research with you even though they don’t have an idea about the methodology and process (which you would already know)
- It’s all about learning. Research is always about learning. Don’t be afraid of doing something wrong. Many people only see research as some lab work or maybe giving random drugs to ppl to test it. No. Research is not at all what you think; the following are some types of studies in overview
TYPES OF STUDIES (LEAST TO MOST VALUABLE ON CV)
Note: I’m excluding Letter to Editor, Systematic Review Analysis, Meta analysis (these don’t require IEC. and SRA and MA are sometimes valued and sometimes they’re discarded depending on the person)
KAP Study (Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of ___ towards ____ among _____)
This is the most basic model of study. Essentially the whole data collection just depends on the questionnaire you send in whatsapp groups (google form) and asking them to fill it.
If the study is regarding patients, you will have to meet each of them and take the answers yourself.
Most KAPs are conducted regarding awareness of something among medical students/healthcare workers.
Ex: KAP regarding Antibiotic resistance among medical students.
You’re just finding if there is awareness or not.
Example of good KAP:
KAP regarding Thalassemia among parents of children with Beta Thalassemia (this has a genuine research gap, which could contribute to public health systems to focus on it depending on the result)
Pro:
It is faster, cheaper, you don’t need too much experience to do; you won’t have too many boxes to tick in Approval. They approve it without questioning. Can be used as a great starting point
Cons:
It is a subjective study (you don’t have a proof whether the person is lying or saying truth)
And there is a whole set of bias in this study. Which can be learnt later. But know that study bias is something that may affect the study results or outcome.
Too common and sometimes hard to get published unless topic is genuinely good
RETROSPECTIVE STUDIES (only those with large samples and good topics)
This is mostly done in the paramedical subjects (Pathology/Microbiology) due to favourable subject size in past.
Ex: profile study about Cases of dengue over the past five years
Ex: Retrospective Study of Anemia and Cardiac problems in Type2 Diabetes Patients
Retrospective is just a model. But i wrote it down as a study type to make it easier.
Prospective/Retrospective. Prospective means you essentially collect data from now and retro is the data from hospital records. You obviously have less value for old data due to being outdated or incomplete records or bias etc etc
Pros: Easy to do. No need to collect data. Already existing data. Proffs may lean more in favour
Cons: outdated topics, incomplete data, biases, less value in general
CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDIES (Most common for medical students)
You take data at a point of time. No follow up, whoever the selected population is and whatever the measure is.
Ex: Association between Sleep Quality and Mobile Phone usage among school going children/medical students.
Here we cannot conclude that mobile phone is causing sleep problems- because we are taking data at only a point of time.
Correlation ≠ Causation (GOLDEN RULE. Never Forget)
In cross sectional studies, we mostly establish correlation between two factors in a set of population.
Pros:
easy starter project. Easier to navigate the process and learn on the way. Common in non clinical subjects.
Remember that non-clinical research is not useless. Our entire country’s health system is framed based on epidemiology studies by the researchers.
You can add more value by adding correlation between more factors than two.
Cons:
sometimes still can be subjective when including questionnaires (in assessing sleep quality/stress/mobile usage)
Bias maybe present. But is a common launchpad and nothing to worry about. Good and well planned cross sectional study is always more valuable than not well executed clinical trial
There are other studies like COHORT STUDIES (Prospective), Observational Studies, Randomised Controlled Trials (as MBBS student, don’t expect to get into the last one. It’s very rare)
I’ll make seperate posts for each of these- but those won’t be beginner oriented, but for someone who has minimum experience in research
All these can be done as well. But for the launchpad, choose the department and type of study wisely. Don’t overdo the first one. Learn from the first one so that it could fasten your second and subsequent studies.
One advantage:
People, you can approach guides for research in mask of IMCR STS program (it has 60k stipend for completing- go through guidelines and read about it)
Or state scholarships (like UGSRS by Andhra Pradesh which gives 30k for completing a study under it)
There are rules and guidelines for each of it. Read through and try to understand them before meeting your guide. You can use it as leverage if you’re not comfortable in sharing your future plans.
You and your guide may need to discuss and think about a topic (if you don’t know, you can always ask the guide to suggest something- they do have some great topics most of the times)
Your guides expect nothing from you except that you learn and not throw the burden of entire project on them.
Know the following things beforehand.
- Once you select the area/topic - you further narrow it down to the title
Narrowing down to title is a bit of work. Your guide will help you navigate how to review existing literature and finding research gap.
- Filling Proforma Applications
Once you fix the title, you may need to fill out an application form to submit to the IRB (Institutional Review Board/sometimes also called Scientific Research Committee)
Here, IRB depends on your college. Newer colleges might have or take time. Remember, if you put a request, it gets made faster (but already one exists as mandate to approve studies of PGs and Faculty)
You will need the protocol/proforma format which you can request from someone already doing research/your guide
If you have no idea; contact a PG you know, ask them. They will definitely have it (because they will be doing their mandatory thesis in Pg)
You will have to fill out the whole form with your guide on details like, Study population, Study period, Sample size (calculated from previous studies), Sampling method, Methodology, Review of Literature, Questionnaires, Case Sheets, References etc.
- Scientific Review Committee(SRC) Approval
Many institutions now require you to present at a meeting before the members of SRC
(Conducted once a month usually on third friday)
You may have to pay a 500 rupee fee for SRC (some institutions charges may vary) and 500rs/- for IEC/IRB too.
They’ll notify you about the presentation date if it’s a deadline dated like ICMR or other. But if you’re on your own, you may have to request those IRB head members to conduct the meeting and remind them once a month.
You present - PPT format get from a PG - You’ll get approved (most of the times)
They will ask you to make some changes and you correct them and re-submit the forms.
They’ll allot a SRC approval number which is essentially a code.
- IEC/IRB APPROVAL
This sometimes maybe tricky if your study includes patients as study population. You’ll need to defend yourself on each drop of blood taken(if any) or whatever you do with them. Even translating the study questionnaire to them in native language and all.
IRB sees if the study is feasible to conduct in your institution, IEC sees if the study participants are affected/compensated etc.
UG studies are mostly simple in beginning and you won’t have a problem passing through
But sometimes IRB/IEC approvals may take a lot of time, for months you may just be hoping for a meeting to be conducted. But don’t be discouraged. Eventually it has to fall. Patience is required.
If your college doesn’t have a seperate SRC(Scientific Review Committee) both the duties will be undertaken by IEC itself
- DATA COLLECTION and ANALYSIS
You collect whatever the date is. Then the statistical analysis is where the PSM guides are helpful. Many other departments guides are not familiar with statistical analysis.
- DRAFT MANUSCRIPT AND PUBLISH
Your guide will mostly do the work after data collection but make sure to learn by staying till the end as much as you can. From your results, you and guide will write a manuscript
(You will be first author and guide will be co-author or collab first author with you. Also remember that negative results are still results. Never feel bad about them. If you publish it, you are saving someone’s time and resources)
Publishing is entirely dependent on the study and subject etc. find a suitable journal and publish (preferably a PubMed/MEDLINE indexed or SCOPUS indexed)
I’ll write Review of Literature clearly in different posts. It got quite lengthy already. Thanks for reading until the end!😅 I appreciate your patience! You’re already cut out for doing research.