Finding Research During M3

[bregma]

I'm currently an M2 at a very suburban/semi rural school with no home department or teaching hospital so neurosurg research has been largely impossible to obtain. For rotations we move to the city where there are a few other schools with research focused departments and I'm considering reaching out to try and get involved with some clinical papers during M3. I have one basic neuroscience mid author paper from late undergrad and a poster from last summer relating to GBM imaging but failed to get the HHMI fellowship so I want to do something to establish myself a bit more and make some contacts in the field.

1) How feasible is trying to do some clinical review work (>80% remotely) during M3 at a school/hospital I don't rotate at. It will be difficult to be physically present during normal business hours because of our lack of a home department. Completely fine with putting in mad weekends when not on a rotation that day. 

2) Who's the best to contact? Residents, program coordinator, PD, or NSG PI?

[Guest]

I wouldn't bank on doing clinical work at an institution you're not spending a sizable amount of time within. You can try to cheat the system a little by doing some ortho spine research if your medical school has faculty in that area. I have a friend who used spine deformity research as his "neurosurgery" research.

[Guest]

Gonna be hard to 1) find the time 3rd year and 2) get access to the medical records at an outside hospital. Suggest you take a year off if you want to do that.