Summer neurosurgery research fell through, what to do????

[Guest]

I was planning to work in the lab this summer of a well-respected surgeon. However, it fell through just today because of some unforeseen event. What to do???? I feel so depressed.

[Guest]

Does your school not have a home program? Consider this a blessing in disguise. You probably wouldn't have even published given how long it takes to perform bench research, and if you did, it probably would have been a 5th or 6th author paper. If your school doesn't have a program, you could try reaching out to some of the residents at Barrow for some clinical research projects. They don't have an affiliated medical school and from what I've heard, they're pretty used to outsiders (at least in the state of Arizona from what I've heard). Just ask for some pre-made databases that you could analyze.

[Guest]

^^^ Thank you so much for that advice. No we don't have a home program. I'm hoping to do retrospective studies and meta-analyses and that sort of stuff. 

I was feeling so depressed, I don't know what to do. I will do that however.

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However, how do I get the emails of the residents?

[Focus]

Unlikely they'd pass significant patient data to someone they never met in person, but you should be able to find resident emails on department pages. If not, sometimes if you look up their papers you can find them via corresponding author emails. That being said, I've never heard of cold calling residents (as opposed to attendings) in this fashion except for people with specific connections (same medical school, specific background similarities, etc), but maybe its more common than I am aware.

[Guest]

^^ Thank you so much. So far I just emailed attendings. I had this lined up but all of a sudden this happened. So in addition to get research experience I'd like to connect with some NS in person, so thats the goal also.

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This has been absolutly devastating.

[Guest]

You can also reach out to residents at the nearest school with a home program. I recommended that the poster reach out to residents in my original post as I feel like they would be more empathetic towards the fact that they don't have a home program compared to some attending who hasn't been in med school. Another option is to reach out to neurosurgery residents who had went to your med school and ty to work with them. They would definitely understand.

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*hasn't been in med school for over 20 years

[Guest]

^^ Thank you again. I've emailed a dozen or so PIs and a few residents. Problem is, residents have very little time to take on a med student so I haven't heard back from any residents. Interested in clinical research.

[Guest]

(02-21-2023, 03:10 AM)Guest Wrote: ^^ Thank you again. I've emailed a dozen or so PIs and a few residents. Problem is, residents have very little time to take on a med student so I haven't heard back from any residents. Interested in clinical research.

Email 50 residents. Not sure what you mean by the time commitment from residents. You're doing 99 percent of the work.