Research course

Medicine is both an art and a science. While clinical experience teaches you the art of medicine, research is the backbone of the science of medicine. Applicants trained abroad often do not have the opportunity, tools or guidance to learn how to appraise research articles or conduct a research project, let alone successfully publish or present original research. Demonstrated research experience is becoming increasingly critical in determining a successful match for IMGs and Caribbean applicants. US research experience with documented outcomes (publications, manuscripts) gives you a distinct advantage.

This is where USMLEsarthi comes in!!

Our team is now offering you the exciting opportunity to do real research! You will get hands-on experience in the steps involved in conducting meaningful clinical research, with the opportunity to publish in PubMed, Scopus (& others) indexed journals & conferences.

Course overview

The USMLEsarthi research course comprises a core theory course (Principles of Research) followed by a practicum (Hands on research experience).

1. Principles of Research – Live, interactive lectures which are designed to walk you through the steps involved in conducting and publishing research.

2. Practicum - You will have the opportunity to work on a research project. This project could include an original research article (your own or ongoing with a USMLEsarthi panelist), case reports, review articles or meta-analysis. Our panelists will provide guidance and assistance during this process. This is done remotely. No physical presence in US is expected or required.

Course Duration and timeline

Principles of Research: 5 weeks

Practicum: About 12 weeks to prepare the draft and submission of manuscript/abstract (actual time depends on the effort you put in). This does not include the time various journals may take to accept and publish (3 months or more).

Course Prerequisites
No prior research experience is necessary.

Course fee

Principles of Research + Practicum: $725 (non Sarthi students), $675 (Sarthi students)

Course Curriculum

Principles of Research

This will include live interactive sessions with our Instructors. Student will learn about different types of research studies, different types of databases, hypothesis generation, designing research methodology, statistical analysis (hands on experience on sample database using SAS/SPSS software – just basic statistical tests), data interpretation and presentation. There will be a special session on ‘Research and Residency interviews’ in which we will guide you on the types of questions to expect on your research during the residency interviews.

The following topics will be covered

Topics
  • Types of publications and databases
  • Hypothesis generation and how to do literature review?
  • How to understand datasets?
  • How to design research methodology?
  • How to analyze data with different tools?
  • How to interpret data?
  • How to write an abstract?
  • How to write a manuscript using various tools?
  • How to publish in various journals and conferences?
  • How to create a poster?
  • How to present at conferences? 
  • Research related questions for residency interviews

Practicum
In this part of the course, you will get the opportunity to work on one research project with a USMLEsarthi researcher.

Publications as part of Practicum

This will yield either one conference abstract or one full research article depending on research topic.

Our instructors are working on original research articles, abstract, meta-analysis articles, case reports and review articles. You will be able to work with one of them one of them depending on your interest, availability and mutual fit. This will be in a group and the researcher will determine group size.
In this case You will get co-authorship in one full article or one conference abstract.

If you want to work on your own topic, our team will assist you in writing and publishing and you will be the first author for the same.

 Course Dates

Next group starts January 9, 2021
 
Class logistics
The Principles of Research classes will be live, interactive lectures held on the weekends. You can be based anywhere in the world. The classes are also recorded so you can always review the contents again.

For Practicum, the research faculty will form separate groups.

Unique Opportunity to do Rotations and Research!

Now USMLESarthi offers clinical research course in combination with clinical rotation. In this unique combination students will do a clinical research course which will give them an opportunity to learn about the fundamentals of clinical research and hands on experience of research projects which will yield one publication (abstract or original research article) in addition to clinical rotation at selected sites. Unique feature of this combination is that students will do the research project under the same faculty as for clinical rotation. This will give students an opportunity to showcase his/her skills and a chance for a reference letter from a faculty for clinical rotation and research.

At this time the following location is participating in the Rotation+Research course (you must enroll in both separately)

Michigan: L1IMMI
Click here to know more about the clinical rotations


Tools

We will be using SAS/SPSS and the projects will give students ample opportunity to learn these tools.

Please note before you enroll
  1. This is an educational course designed to introduce the enrolled to fundamentals of clinical research, provide opportunity for working on research projects as part of a team. You should be prepared to discuss your learnings from the course and the research during the interviews.