IF I DON’T WANT TO DO LABORATORY RESEARCH OR CONDUCT A
CLINICAL TRIAL, CAN YOU GIVE ME SOME EXAMPLES OF WHAT I
COULD DO?
Here are some examples of Scholarly Projects:
1. Ask each patient you meet during your outpatient pediatrics rotation to draw a
picture that shows what it’s like to go to the doctor’s office. Then read some of
the extensive literature about interpreting children’s pictures and use the drawings
you have obtained to say something about your cohort’s experience and
perceptions. Your “final paper” would include an introduction that reviews the
literature, your collection of pictures and your interpretation of them, and a
conclusion that ties it all together. You might choose a mentor from the School of
Health and Rehabilitative Sciences, Department of Occupational Therapy, or from
the Child Life Division of Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
2. Rotate in a family practice or adult general medicine clinic in the city of
Pittsburgh and an analogous clinic in a suburban or rural area. Make your own
observations regarding how or how often a particular patient population (e.g.,
patients with hypertension) presents. Review the existing literature about
differences in health care delivery or treatment of a particular disease or chief
complaints as voiced by the patients (whichever is relevant) between urban and
rural populations and put your observations in the context of these existing data.
Your “final paper” would include an introduction that reviews the relevant
literature, your own observations systematically and, if possible, quantitatively
recorded, and your analysis of where your observations sit relative to what was
previously known and what your analysis tells us about how we could do better or
differently. You might choose a mentor from the Department of Family Medicine
or from among the AOC in Healthcare for Underserved Populations faculty.
3. A high school student is “shadowing” you during your time in medical school.
Design a structured interview instrument by which you gauge your student’s
perceptions before, half-way through, and upon completion of your mentoring
relationship with him or her. Record in systematic fashion how you have changed
or modified your mentoring strategy at each stage as a function of your student’s
comments. Review the extensive literature on mentoring in general and relate
your experiences to this literature. Your “final paper” would include an
introduction that reviews the relevant literature, your own observations
systematically recorded, and your analysis of where your observations sit relative
to what was previously known and what your analysis tells us about how we
could do better or differently as we mentor people specifically in preparation for
careers in health and science. You might choose a mentor from the School of
Education.
I AM OR PLAN TO BE ENROLLED IN AN AREA OF CONCENTRATION
(AOC) AT PITT MED AND PLAN TO DO MY SCHOLARLY PROJECT IN
CONNECTION WITH THIS AOC. HOW WILL WHAT I AM REQUIRED TO
DO AND HOW MY PROJECT AND PROGRESS ARE OVERSEEN BE
AFFECTED BY THIS?
If you are enrolled in an AOC and wish to do your Scholarly Project under the auspices
of this AOC, you will undoubtedly choose a mentor who is part of or suggested by the
faculty for that AOC. You will work with that mentor to develop your initial plans and
submit your preliminary proposal in structured abstract form (we will see to it that you all
have the form) electronically like everyone else (i.e., by Dec. of your MS2 year). The
“committee” that will read, critique, and, through the Office of Student Affairs, credit
you with submitting as acceptable that proposal will be the group of faculty that is
responsible for the AOC in which you are enrolled. You may also receive feedback from
Drs. Schor, Troen, and/or Boninger as you develop your proposal, but the ultimate
authority for crediting you with having successfully fulfilled the requirement of
submission of a proposal is the AOC committee. Over the ensuing 2.5 years of medical
school, you will carry out, refine, discuss, and write up your Scholarly Project with input
from your mentor and from your particular AOC committee. When you write your final
paper, the same AOC committee will review and critique it, decide whether or not you
should revise it, review any revised versions, and ultimately grant you a Pass/Fail grade
on your project. This process is identical to that required for any student who is not
affiliated with an AOC except for the specifics of the committee that reviews and
critiques your output.
I AM OR PLAN TO BE ENROLLED IN THE CLINICAL SCIENTIST
TRAINING PROGRAM (CSTP) AT PITT MED AND PLAN TO DO MY
SCHOLARLY PROJECT IN CONNECTION WITH THE CSTP. HOW WILL
WHAT I AM REQUIRED TO DO AND HOW MY PROJECT AND PROGRESS
ARE OVERSEEN BE AFFECTED BY THIS?
If you are enrolled in the CSTP and wish to do your Scholarly Project under the auspices
of this program, you will undoubtedly choose a mentor who is part of or suggested by the
faculty for the CSTP. You will work with that mentor to develop your initial plans and
submit your preliminary proposal in structured abstract form (we will see to it that you all
have the form) electronically like everyone else (i.e., by Dec. of your MS2 year). The
“committee” that will read, critique, and, through the Office of Student Affairs, credit
you with submitting as acceptable that proposal will be the group of faculty that is
responsible for overseeing the CSTP. You may also receive feedback from Drs. Schor,
Troen, and/or Boninger as you develop your proposal, but the ultimate authority for
crediting you with having successfully fulfilled the requirement of submission of a
proposal is the CSTP committee. Over the ensuing 2.5 years of medical school, you will
carry out, refine, discuss, and write up your Scholarly Project with input from your
mentor and from the CSTP committee. When you write your final paper, the same CSTP
committee will review and critique it, decide whether or not you should revise it, review
any revised versions, and ultimately grant you a Pass/Fail grade on your project. This
process is identical to that required for any student who is not affiliated with the CSTP
except for the specifics of the committee that reviews and critiques your output.
I AM ENROLLED IN THE MEDICAL SCIENTIST TRAINING PROGRAM
(MSTP) AT PITT MED AND PLAN TO WRITE A THESIS AND OBTAIN MY
PhD. HOW WILL WHAT I AM REQUIRED TO DO AND HOW MY PROJECT
AND PROGRESS ARE OVERSEEN BE AFFECTED BY THIS?
If you are enrolled in the MSTP, the research component of your Scholarly Project can be
the thesis work you will do to earn your PhD degree. You will undoubtedly work with
your mentor to develop your initial plans and submit your preliminary proposal to your
Thesis Committee. You will need to submit (We will have an electronic mechanism in
place for you to do this.) your proposal through the website we are in the process of
establishing, along with the attestation of your Thesis Committee that they have accepted
this proposal. (This will allow the Office of Student Affairs to give you credit on your
transcript for having completed this requirement.) When you write your thesis, you
should submit the abstract from your thesis, again on the Scholarly Project website, as
your Scholarly Project “final paper”. Once you defend, revise, and have approved your
thesis, the attestation of your Thesis Committee that they have accepted your thesis in
partial fulfillment of the degree of PhD will need to be submitted as well, so that you can
get credit for a final version of your Scholarly Project. We fully understand that your
timeline for completion of your proposal and your final product will differ from those of
your fellow medical students who are not enrolled in the MSTP program. This will not
pose a difficulty for you or for us. We also fully expect that, when you return to medical
school for your final years, you will participate in those courses and activities that
involve discussion and presentation of your project with your “new” fellow MD
classmates.
I COMPLETED A PhD BEFORE I CAME TO PITT MED. HOW WILL WHAT I
AM REQUIRED TO DO AND HOW MY PROJECT AND PROGRESS ARE
OVERSEEN BE AFFECTED BY THIS?
If you completed a PhD before coming to Pitt Med, you have indeed laid the groundwork
for your Scholarly Project. In fact, you may not need to do additional “research” in
fulfillment of the Scholarly Project requirement. However, you will be expected to build
upon your understanding and interpretation of what you have already done, to present it
to and discuss it with your fellow medical students, and to submit the required
“documents” (i.e., preliminary proposal, follow-up reports of interactions with your
mentor [whether the same one under whom you received your PhD or someone
different], and final report [not even close to as lengthy as the thesis you already
produced!]. Several examples may help clarify what this means. If you have a PhD in an
area of biomedical science or medical sociology or public health (e.g., epidemiology),
you could, for your Scholarly Project, continue your readings and discussions with your
thesis mentor and begin to put your own findings into the context of the new information
that has been generated since completion of your PhD. If you have a PhD in a nonscience or non-biological science area, you could work with a mentor to explore the
applicability of your findings or creative work to the field of medicine. For example,
maybe you studied the connections between the history of England and the way in which
people in Shakespeare’s plays respond to adverse circumstances. You could, for your
Scholarly Project, examine the depiction of the physician or of the physically and
mentally challenged in one of Shakespeare’s plays. (You would be using the skills you
previously acquired to apply them to medicine.)
Like all of your colleagues, you will work with a mentor to develop your initial plans
(these could be a comprehensive review of the ensuing literature or a new look at a body
of literature, work of art, time in history, etc., that brings your newfound medical
“expertise” and interest to bear) and submit your preliminary proposal in structured
abstract form (we will see to it that you all have the form) electronically like everyone
else (i.e., by Dec. of your MS2 year). The “committee” that will read, critique, and,
through the Office of Student Affairs, credit you with submitting as acceptable that
proposal will be the Scholarly Project Executive Committee (names on the Zone). You
may also receive feedback from Drs. Schor, Troen, and/or Boninger as you develop your
proposal, but the ultimate authority for crediting you with having successfully fulfilled
the requirement of submission of a proposal is the Scholarly Project Executive
Committee. Over the ensuing 2.5 years of medical school, you will carry out, refine,
discuss, and write up your Scholarly Project with input from your mentor and from the
Scholarly Project Executive Committee. When you write your final paper, the same
Committee will review and critique it, decide whether or not you should revise it, review
any revised versions, and ultimately grant you a Pass/Fail grade on your project.