Things Your Research Mentor Should Know About You

This article prepares you to understand what your mentors should know so that you can communicate these during the interview or thereafter when you work with.

Your Immediate Priorities: When an international medical graduate requests for a volunteer research opportunity, research mentors are aware that research is their short term goal and long term goal is to be a clinician in the US. However, what they want to know if you have any USMLE exams pending or Observerships or if it is a residency application season. It is important to be honest with them as they can work with you based on priorities. If your ERAS application is coming up and you need a letter of recommendation within specific time, that is something your mentor should know.

Reasoning behind Research in Particular Field: Any research will enhance your CV. For example, when you are applying for Internal Medicine residency, any general medicine or sub-specialty, research is considered good. But why specifically GI research Or why research healthcare disparity? Reasoning behind your thoughts will help them to provide what you are looking for or just decline to work with you and not waste your time. Mentors usually are very receptive to provide what you are looking for.

Your Residency Training Plans: How far are you in applying for your residency training is something mentors should know. If you are 2 years away and are still working on your USMLE exams, then mentors can have some long term research plans with you building multiple studies. Mentors may be willing to put in more effort to train you details of research methodology if you are there for long term. On the other hand, if you are there for a short term and are applying for residency the same year, then mentors may be willing to help you network more aggressively with program leadership. That is a huge plus.

Your Role/Experience in Research: If you are fresh to research, you may need more mentoring versus if you are seasoned. Mentors also would like to know what to expect (or what can you contribute) from you to the research team. Clearly explaining the role will definitely help. If you are good at literature review, please say so. If you are good at bio-statistics, that is a great asset. If you are naive to research and are willing to put in long hours, that is a huge plus. Remember, you are a physician too. Your medical knowledge/background is your greatest asset for any medical research.

Your Expectations: I have explained what an ideal volunteer research position is, in a separate blog. Take a look. You can neither expect everything from one mentor nor he can provide you everything. That is where prioritizing your expectations is important. Be ready with this when you go for an interview.

Role in Research: Your role need not be the same based on your experience. For example, if you have mastered writing manuscripts, you may want to branch out and learn how to come up with appropriate statistical tests or how to run statistical software. Definition of your role may also include how deep do you want to dive in the research? Do you want to be a primary investigator (your mentor playing the role of principal investigator) and grab first authorship in the study? Or do you want to concentrate on USMLE and tag along in a research project contributing to the best of your capacity? Your mentor should know.

Time frame: Two aspects of time frame have to be discussed. First, average hours you can realistically put in per week. Second, weeks or months you can commit to research. Research takes time. From coming up with a clinically relevant question to publishing in a peer reviewed journal, every clinical research project goes through several turbulent paths. Defining how long you can commit to the research will help your mentor in several ways. If you can put in only a few hours per week, he/she may ask you to take up database work or just work on some retrospective studies. If you are there for months/years, then you may get a chance to work on prospective studies. Let your mentor know!

Your Start Date: As an International Medical Graduate, there are many barriers to medical research. So, IMGs tend to apply/contact potential mentors months or years in advance of the start date, even when they are in their home country. Since the physician schedule/clinical demand varies (and a lot of variables affect), mentors working on single center retrospective studies cannot wait for you to come and join. On the other hand, if you can inform your mentor about your start date well in advance, your mentor may have sufficient time to collaborate with other hospitals/universities and design a bigger study. Either way, your mentor should know!

Your current Location and Visa: Some universities have visa restriction to volunteer. Even though it is obvious that the faculty should know about these restrictions, it is not uncommon to not know the visa issues. Not every faculty is a visa expert. For example, if you are on a B1/B2 visa, you cannot volunteer on funded research benefiting the university. Also, some universities care about patient data privacy and may not agree to share their data with a physician who is not in US land. There are some universities who are willing to sponsor J1 for research. Since these factors play a significant role, your mentor should know the visa issues.

Financial Support: Do you come to work with a research grant? Are you seeking a paid position? Are you volunteering? If you are volunteering, how do you support your accommodation, food and travel? Mentors would like to know these aspects. If you are struggling financially, your mentor may be willing to share some of the expenses of the conferences and research submission cost. Help your mentor by letting him/her know.