A little about

Research Work Experience

To find a research spot in a good research conducting facility especially in a university hospital
program is bit harder than securing residency spot sometimes. This is because there arent huge
numbers of vacant spots available all the time, but there are some fortunate candidates who are
able to find the paid research assistant position even in the beginning. The purpose of writing this
document is providing information about the advantages of earning research experience, techniques
to find research position and using it as a backup plan in case if one remains unmatched.
Please note: This is a personal experience so there can be some conflicting points and one can write
feedback to help other candidates.

A spotlight on the structure of research experience in US:

The field of research is much different than clinical side of medicine or other disciplines. Its more
stereotypical type of work, one has to do same work daily. Usually for any international medical
graduate or student there are two ways to earn the research experience, either in the way of
research electives and other is volunteering in any research study after graduation as volunteer
research assistant.
During undergraduate level, there are some well structured research summer internship programs in
big universities of US like Harvard, John Hopkins, Case Western, University of Illinois at Chicago etc;
one can find those through Google. There are research electives as well offered by many hospitals.
If one has to apply for it then it is better to start workup 2-3 months prior to their deadline. To find a
suitable spot in any hospital isnt always easy but if there is determination, one can find the way.
After graduation, there are many projects that are being carried out by many physicians throughout
the US individually or through university hospitals. In the US, the main funding agency for research
project is National Institute of Health (NIH); many projects are also funded by hospitals as well.
As a volunteer research assistant, there are two sets of work that one has to do while working in a
research project. One set is the office and laboratory work; office work includes assisting research
fellow in their work, maintaining the proper documentation of each patient on files and
electronically, and learning different tests and techniques used to assess the patients condition in a
research study. Other is the laboratory work; it includes the processing of blood sample of the
patients participating in the research, centrifuging those, sometimes other techniques like PCR are
also used. The blood samples processed are usually sent to other laboratories for further testing.
Second set of work is bit interesting and that is working on research articles. There are many ways to
write a medical paper if one is interested, usually whole team of the project is continuously working

on many systematic reviews, abstracts and submitting articles. One can also get involved in writing
original papers, as there is also data available to analyse and write an original article.
One of the ways to publish an article is letter to editor in any research journal, it is easy, short and
less time consuming and most times easily accepted.

How to find a research assistant spot in a project:

Getting a volunteer position is bit difficult
but getting paid research position from
the beginning is even harder. Hiring
someone who does not know well about
the research project and routine work,
isnt easy for any employer, so asking
about paid research project directly in the
beginning could be one of the biggest
reasons to get rejection. There are
different ways to spot a research position,
and but none of them has cent percent
guarantee to secure a research spot.
These are:

1. Writing emails to the faculty members of the universities:

One can find email addresses of the faculty members of any particular department on their
respective websites. There is little trick here that one has to catch, lets suppose there a hospital in
the New York and its a really nice residency program too and you want to approach faculty
members for asking any research position, but on their website you are unable to find their faculty
directory. In that case, one has to see the affiliation of that hospital with the university and extract
the faculty profiles from the university website under particular department. Thats how one can
find emails in the bulk and other way is to search on Google for particular faculty members at any
hospital, Google is also useful in this regard.

How to write an email:

First of all greet and introduce yourself, write brief points of your resume and write why you have
written the email. If one has some knowledge about the research projects of principal investigator,
one can mention that as well, this will project your depth of interest. Write a precise neat and clean
email in an organized way, its not important to attach resume if the physician is interested he or she
will ask your resume later on. It is ethical good to respond the email even if there is any rejection. It
should be kept in mind that if one is emailing to same faculty members of the same hospital, one
should not email all faculty members at one time, as one physician might discuss the content with
another physician which is not considered good.
Candidates who are seeking research position usually send 1-2 thousand emails to different faculty
members, I, personally, sent thousand emails and got only few positive replies, I was able to get only
three interview calls; one was conducted on Skype at Emory University, Georgia. Another was on
telephone and that was conducted by a physician in Houston and third one was cancelled because
physician wanted a in person interview.

2. Spotting a research project:

There different ways to spot the current research projects. Either one can find the list of research
projects on clinicaltrials.gov and also find the contact information of the principal investigators.

Here is how one can trace out projects on

clinicaltrials.gov:
Target
the
green
highlighted projects as those are still in the
early phase.
Another way is to trace out projects from
NIH website. Here is the link for this:
https://report.nih.gov/

3. Spotting Research Project through contacts:

I personally believe that this is the most effective way to get a research position in any facility. If one
knows someone in a research project then contact them and ask for any volunteer positions
available and then secure it. I got a research volunteer work through this way.

4. Visiting different hospitals:

This is also effective way to get a position. Lets suppose if you are in New York then try figure out
the hospitals which are conducting projects and visit them and ask them for any volunteer help.

5. Facebook:
This is such a great tool if used properly; write in the search bar on the top with keywords like
research assistant position, volunteer etc. One will get the list of matching words in any group you
have joined on facebook and sort it out accordingly.

Few things to remember, its really hard to secure paid research in the beginning. Most of the
times, volunteer positions may get converted in to paid one as paid research fellows get in to the
residency so volunteers are usually hired. But it is not the matter of days but months and it requires
dedication for stereotypical and boring work which is really hard for any clinical oriented person.
One has to continuously show the interest to the team and ask in a reasonable manner that if they
are going to get you paid or not.
There might be lots of paid research position available throughout the US but main problem is
working visa. Many institutions are reluctant to sponsor working visa to any IMGs. Some institutes
might sponsor J1 scholar visa but it cannot be used for work and earning purposes.

How research experience can help one through matching process?

This is sometimes misunderstood that if one has research experience then it would make easy to get
matched, but the fact is IMGs like us apply mostly in small community hospitals which do not care
much about the number of publications unless there is something extraordinary. Sometimes, talking
about research work or publications in an interview of small community program may put negative
impression because the community hospitals focus on clinical experience rather than research.
Research work can be used to show that one hasnt wasted time and there are no gaps in the
resume and it can be used as a tool to show your focused work in a particular field. Like if someone
is aiming to get residency in neurology or psychiatry then research experience and publications will
boost the resume. It is also noticed that doing research work in residency training program might
help to build some contacts and pull out an interview call from that particular program or with the
help of principal investigator but it depends on your communication and interpersonal skills and
rapport as well.

Using Research work as a backup plan:

If someone is able to grab a paid position then it could help someone financially as the process of
match is really very expensive. Secondly, it is continuously adding something in the resume like any
publication, number of months working in that institute. If it is a good residency training program,
one might be able to get an observership there. But many research projects require 1-2 years of
commitment and one can not apply in the match during that period.

Focusing on the match:

Match is far more important than anything else; pursing
programs, emailing and phone calling them and may be
visiting them in person requires lots of time and when
someone is involved in a research work either paid or
volunteer will limit the focus on the match. It is highly
advised that if someone has applied in the match then
dedicate 2-3 months fully to the process of the match and
trace out the research projects at the end of February as
many spots are going to be vacant during that time and
interview season also comes to an end at the time. And it
should be kept in mind the earning clinical experience
through observerships, electives and externships is more
valuable than research itself.

From my experience, I have learnt that research is more like focus stuff if someone is writing
articles on different subjects or on haphazard topics then it wont yield much. On the contrary, if
someone is writing focused articles on any subject then it will be useful and showing ones
extraordinary dedication to a particular field.
Research work experience is helpful tool for those who are enthusiastic about it and could be used if
one is unable to match. But it could be sometimes dead end as well IF someone remains unmatched
again and again and stuck as paid research fellow then it might be the wastage of time rather than it
would be better to continue residency in the home country. The main purpose of writing this
document was to share each and everything that I have learnt in my last trip to USA and to help out
as well clear the things to fellow colleagues.
Though, I remained unmatched and couldnt secure any paid research position but I have earned
valuable experience which I have shared. Remember me in your prayers for my future endeavours

Best Regards,
Raja Shakeel Mushtaque, M.D
Dow Medical College-2011