New, Enhanced Program and Website Help Medical Students Find Research Opportunities

Ayear into his newly created position of assistant dean for research, Matthew Layne, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry, sees himself as a matchmaker connecting medical students to the large research community on the BU Medical Campus (BUMC). Layne’s new position is central to BUMC Provost and Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine Dean Karen Antman’s goal of incorporating more research opportunities into the MD program.

“These are highly qualified, capable students, and many of them are passionate about research. They have questions, and they just need to learn about the research opportunities and how to connect with faculty so that they can join a research project,” says Layne.

With input from the offices of Medical Education, Enrichment, and Student Affairs, Layne worked with Eliana Bolanos, executive assistant to Associate Dean for Research Andrew Taylor, PhD, to create a new website that collects all of the medical school’s student research opportunities—previously spread across personal, lab, and departmental websites—and provides information and contacts all in one place. It’s part of a multiprong approach to student research that includes extending summer research into the academic year and across the four years of medical school, assessing the quantity and quality of student research, and incorporating research and an optional dedicated research year into the curriculum.

In part, the school is responding to requests from students with concerns about increased competition for residency programs, particularly in medical specialties that tend to require or favor applicants with research experience and published papers, says Taylor.

But that’s not the only reason.

Third-year medical student Lindsey Claus just started clinical rotations. Her presentation of a team research project on ultrasound education swept student award categories at the International Association of Medical Science Educators in June 2022. She says research gives her a measure of hope, particularly when caring for a patient experiencing a difficult and complicated prognosis.

“You kind of struggle thinking about longterm answers and structural problems, and research provides a really helpful way of figuring out what those might be,” she says.

Some students make their own research arrangements and go uncounted, according to Layne. That’s something he’d like to change.

“We are working to enhance the research and mentoring experiences of all medical students,” he says.

“Part of this includes developing strategies to better understand where the students are performing research and tracking the outcomes of their work, including publications,” he says.

By providing strategies to find mentors and projects, basic information on how to do both long- and short-term research, contacts, links to applications and scholarships, and a section highlighting student research experiences and achievements on a single website, Layne is hoping to attract medical students to work through his office.

Many medical students are introduced to research at BU through the seven-to-tenweek Medical Student Summer Research Program (MSSRP)—occurring between the first and second years of medical school— with 40–50 students participating annually.

“We’re looking at [the MSSRP] as the launch point,” says Taylor, where the student researcher finds a project of interest; connects with faculty; learns research ethics, enhanced research techniques, and science; and gets accustomed to the research schedule.

The school’s policy already allows students to pursue research on their own, part-time in the first two years, during a four-week research block in the third year, and for up to 12 weeks in the final year. Students can add an optional research year.

Now, students can apply to do longitudinal research, working with faculty mentors, at the beginning of their second year, with an option of taking a research year between the second and third years or third and fourth years as part of the academic program. They can continue research through their final two years, supported by an advisor and advisory committee with an annual report and presentations at an annual research symposium required.

Layne sees increased participation by medical students also benefitting the school’s research community.

“[Medical students] are a fantastic resource for us to recruit into our labs because they have knowledge and motivation and passion, and the faculty can, in turn, mentor them and help them develop into physician-scientists,” he says. ●