Training medical students in research skills has long been a focus at Stanford. To get an inside glimpse of how this works, read my story on the Stanford Medical Student Research Symposium, an annual event where students present poster boards of their research for judging by faculty.
The depth and breadth of individual research accomplished by medical students who, at the same time are juggling classroom and clinical education, is impressive. The faculty representative at the event explained the educational process to me:
"Stanford tries really hard to open doors in the area of scientific research and give students a little nudge to go through," said Laurence Baker, PhD, director of the Scholarly Concentration program, a required program of study for medical students that promotes in-depth learning and scholarship. Each of Stanford’s medical students are required to complete at least one quarter’s worth of research, but most do more, he said.
"We train the kind of doctors who become leaders," Baker said. "Whether that involves publishing, clinical work, research or patenting — education in scientific research is a key element of training."
My story also provides a taste of the conversation between one of the students who used the Veterans Administration database to conduct his research of opioid drug use and a judge of the event, who plays the dual role of evaluator and teacher. She provides both constructive criticism and encouragement to the budding physician-scientist:
In a dress shirt and tie, Raymond Deng, a third-year medical student, stood next to a poster describing his research on opioid use among veterans. "I’m interested in addiction medicine," he said. "Prescription drug abuse is huge.” He was discussing his findings with Sonoo Thadaney, director of the Program in Bedside Medicine... Thadaney, the symposium judge, listened intently to his description, nodding her head in encouragement. "Why did you pick this study?" she said, clipboard in hand. "Personal reasons," Deng said, adding that someone in his life has a heroin addiction, and that an epidemic in prescription drug abuse has been shown to have contributed to an increase in heroin use. She nodded again. "The great thing with data like this is that the data itself can bring up questions that we didn’t think of," she said. “If the Googles and the Yahoos of the world can use data like this for research, so can we. Great work. Go crazy with it."
Previously: Contemporary health issues focus of Stanford med students research presentation, As part of annual tradition, budding physician-scientists display their work and New class of physician-scientists showcase research.
Photo by Norbert von der Groeben
