During your residency, you can hone your skills as a researcher and deepen your ability to critically review published studies. All Med-Peds residents complete at least one scholarly/QI project during their residency and routinely present their work on a national level (e.gs. Pediatric Academic Society, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, Society of Hospital Medicine and National Med-Peds Residents’ Association based on their specialty of interest.
Building the future of medicine
These scholarly activities encourage residents to satisfy their intellectual curiosity and place the clinical information they’ve acquired into the context of population health and the overall health system. In addition, residents gain writing and presentation skills, work closely with one or more faculty mentors, improve their abilities to search and understand the medical literature, and potentially gain skills in performance improvement and evaluation. Residents who complete one or more scholarly activities are generally considered more competitive candidates for fellowship and other career opportunities. ChristianaCare also has an Institute for Research on Equity and Community Health (iREACH), which focuses on Health Systems Optimization Clinical Effectiveness and Population Health Programs and Nemours has a huge listing of projects as well. Areas of Research (Nemours.org)
Types of Resident Research Projects
ChristianaCare’s and Nemours Childrens’ Health patient volume and excellent medical informatics provide an extremely rich source of data for a wide variety of research questions. Residents find utilization of the robust ChristianaCare database allows easy review of medical records for research purposes. These retrospective reviews have been an excellent source of residents’ original research. Additionally, some residents have successfully managed to conduct prospective studies, such as surveying health care workers before and after an intervention, or screening a specified patient population for a given condition, or even randomized controlled trials. Many residents also become involved in both informal and formal performance improvement (PI) projects, many of which result in publishable results.