How to Succeed in Medical Research. Robert Foley Andrew

research is usually undertaken as part of a research degree, or sometimes an extended period of time is allocated to a research project in medical or biomedical degrees. Laboratory research takes time and can rarely be properly performed on a part‐time basis while attempting to continue your regular studies or work. Laboratory research is discussed in more detail in Chapter 10.

1.5 Getting ideas for research

      The ideas needed for research will depend on the type of research you plan to perform. For example, ideas for a case report or a case series may arise from time spent meeting patients in clinic or on the wards. Ideas may come from discussing your interest in getting involved in research with a senior colleague (more in Chapter 2), or you may not need to come up with the idea at all, such as in the case of a collaborative project.

Ask yourself: what interests or excites me in research? This is one of the main things to bear in mind when thinking of ideas for your research. It can be difficult to stay motivated in research at times; however, if you pick a topic that you have genuine interest in, it will be far easier to continue with the project until the end. Another excellent way to get ideas for research is to draw on the experience of your seniors. Try to identify those people who have been involved in research in the past and discuss it with them. What led them to become involved in research? How did they start? Who did they talk to? This kind of discussion can be very important, and if your senior is receptive, then you can use this person as a role model/mentor over the course of your research career.

      Case Study 1.5 Identifying areas for research

      I had the idea for a research study in patients with acoustic neuroma (a brain tumour) because a family member of mine was diagnosed with the condition. I obviously had a big interest in this disease, and I was particularly interested if patients with this tumour experienced a big impact on their quality of life. I discussed the idea with a colleague of mine, and this project was also perfect for him, as it allowed him to demonstrate his interest in ear, nose, and throat surgery, because that is who commonly looks after patients with acoustic neuroma. But we didn't know much about quality of life in research, so we asked for help from our hospital's psychiatric team, particularly concerning how to perform a quality of life assessment, and they gave us ideas of questionnaires we could use. From there, we spent some time reviewing the literature on the topic. We found that some research had been conducted on the topic, but that we could approach it from a different angle. We were interested in whether the quality of life was different in patients who had undergone a different treatment strategy, and if alcohol was used as a coping mechanism. We thought that our question was clinically interesting, and we decided that we would proceed to the next step in this study and try to identify a supervisor for the project.

References

      1 1. Foley, R.W. (2019). Acoustic neuroma quality of life: are we missing the point? Eur. Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 276: 1549–1550. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29948270.

      2 2. Lodder, W.L., van der Laan, B.F.A.M., Lesser, T.H., and Leong, S.C. (2018). The impact of acoustic neuroma on long‐term quality‐of‐life outcomes in the United Kingdom. Eur. Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 275: 709–717. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29330600.

      3 3. BURST Urology (2020). MIMIC study overview. https://bursturology.com/mimic (accessed 28 October 2020).

      4 4. Maweni, R.M., Foley, R.W., Lupi, M. et al. (2016). Surgical learning activities for house officers: do they improve the surgical experience? Ir. J. Med. Sci. 185: 913–919. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27585806.

      5 5. Framingham Heart Study (2020). Three generations of research on heart disease. https://www.framinghamheartstudy.org (accessed 28 October 2020).