Discovery Phase: what next?

Contact information:

Dr. Maureen Powers, Department of Cell Biology, mpowers@cellbio.emory.edu

Ms. Sherice Allen-Henry, M. S., Discovery Coordinator, sahenry@emory.edu

Have requested potential projects from both clinical and basic departments with another reminder sent today. Will have all submissions reviewed and database will be openednext Monday or Tuesday. Projects will continue to be added. Projects will be accessible at the Discovery web site: http://med.emory.edu/FMA/index.cfm Select Student page link and then “SEARCH RESEARCH PROJECTS>>” at the top

Can be searched by: Mentor name, Department/Division, Key word.

Can just browse through the full database if desired. “View full database”.

Database of potential research projects.

In order to be eligible for the Discovery Phase, a project must be approved and visible in the Database. If you have identified a mentor independently, the mentor MUST submit the project for approval. Keep in mind that there are requirements for serving as a mentorthat must be met by the faculty.

If you need to identify an Emory mentor for an off-site project or if you can’t find somethingin the area you are interested in, we will work with you to help find an appropriate mentor.

We encourage you to meet with potential mentors to discuss projects and find the best fit for you. Please do not request to work with a mentor you have not met, based only on their project description. But do be upfront with the mentors about where you are in your decision process so that they can budget their time.

Choosing a Discovery Research Project

Find an area that excites you and makes you want to learn more about it. The point is not just a letter for your residency application

Look for projects that are part of an ongoing, productive research environment. It stands to reason that a mentor who is experienced at research can provide the best guidance in a research project.

Look for projects that pose an hypothesis-driven, focused question that can be reasonably addressed in 5 months.

Find a mentor with whom you have some rapport, ideally a person whose style orapproach meshes well with yours – you will spend a considerable amount of time working with this person and they can provide advice and opportunities.

Once you have decided on a Mentor and project:

From the Student page: https://secure.web.emory.edu/med/prod/FMA/index_stu.cfmSearch the database to find the page of the project you wish to work on.

At the bottom of the project page, there is a link “Select This Project”.

An email will then be sent to the mentor to notify her/him that you have asked to be matched to that project.

Once the mentor responds affirmatively, you will both be sent an email that confirms the match and spells out your responsibilities for the Discovery Phase.

You will then be asked for your name, email and desired start date.

For all 2015 start dates, Mentor must be finalized by Tuesday, December 16, 2014.Signed Mentor and Student Contracts are due by Friday, December 19, 2014.

You will each be asked to sign a Student or Mentor contract agreeing to theseresponsibilities.

After your match to a Mentor and Project is confirmed:

A two page (single spaced, Arial font, 11 pt or larger), not including the title page or References, Research Proposal defining the Discovery Project is due in January/February.

The research Mentor is expected to work closely with you on the development of the Proposal and MUST review and APPROVE the proposal PRIOR to submission. Along withyour proposal you must submit a signed Proposal Approval form (original signature, not Digital, scanned and uploaded as pdf).

For March, 2015 starts: 2 page proposals are due by Monday, January 12, 2015.

For April, 2015 starts: 2 page proposals are due by Thursday, January 29, 2015.

For May, 2015 starts: 2 page proposals are due by Thursday, February 23, 2015.

For June or later, 2015 starts: 2 page proposals are due by Thursday, March 30, 2015.

Discovery is graded and late submissions will impact your grade.

Submission of Discovery proposals, etc:

Discovery research proposals and other documents (Student contract, CITI certification, final papers, etc) will be submitted via OASIS.

When you log in, under Academic History you will find a Discovery Phase Panel. Be sure you turn Edit on.Here you can fill in your Mentor name, project title, etc, etcScroll down to find the appropriate place to edit or upload your document.

Name the file “lastname proposal.doc”. Naming is IMPORTANT! Please use this format.Be sure you accept all changes.

SUMMARY: Discovery web site - find information, links to documents, browse and select your project.

OASIS panel – submit all documents, mentor information, travel or contactinformation.

Be sure to turn Edit On

Means Edit is On. Click to turnEdit Off when you are done.

If you are planning an international project:

At the Discovery Student web page https://secure.web.emory.edu/med/prod/FMA/index_stu.cfm you will find links at the bottom regarding international travel.

* See For projects involving international travel for more information and links.

* Enroll in International SOS (ISOS). You must also provide local contact informa- tion for reaching you. This can be done soon after you arrive.

*Attend an international travel workshop put on by the Rollins School of Public Health, usually the first Saturday in April.

* You can apply for a travel award to help with the costs of international flights and housing. To be considered you must be abroad for a major portion of your Discovery project. The form to apply is at the web site. Complete and email to Sherice. Funds are not available for domestic travel.

Schedule Checklists:

Rather than send repeated reminder emails, we will be doing the following this year:

* Enrollment in Pre-Discovery will allow Sherice to post dates to your calendars.

* We have sent everyone the Fall Checklist with dates for all Discovery events and due dates.

* Once your requested schedule is submitted and approved through Dr. Felner’s office, we will send you a Checklist specific to your Discovery schedule. This will list all the due dates for requirements/deliverables.

*We will send one reminder email about 2 weeks before a deadline.

The Project Proposals will be reviewed by 2 members of a Discovery Research Committee of Emory faculty. The committee will return the proposal to the student for modifications if deemed necessary. Acceptance rate has been about 50% on first submission .

After the proposal is submitted:

We will make every effort to return proposals needing changes to the student as soon as possible.

Revised proposals must be resubmitted and accepted before the Discovery project can start. See the Timeline at the web site and Checklist for due date of revision.

IRB approval MUST be in place and the protocol number or approval letter must be uploaded by 1 week before project is due to start. IRB is considered the Mentor’s responsibility to obtain and this is part of the Mentors contract for Discovery. You will be able to upload the letter or protocol number to the Discovery panel on OASIS.

Online CITI training must also be completed by 1 week before the project start date. If these are not in place, your Discovery project start will be delayed. Mentors who do not obtain IRB in a timely manner will not be able to have students in future.

Discovery is a 5 month course. Therefore your Discovery grade counts as 5 times the weight of any single clerkship or elective in calculating your GPA.

Discovery Grading

Breakdown of Discovery scoring:2 Page research proposal 10%SoCRATES exam 10%Mentor’s evaluation 15%Timeliness 15%Final paper 50%

Plus/minus letter grades will be given on the standard SOM scale.

The final paper presents the research you have done in the format of a medical/scientific manuscript of 8-10 pages. If you wrote a first authored manuscript for publication, you may submit the manuscript. Case reports or review articles are not acceptable as Discovery Final papers

The first part of the SoCRATES course will be given at 5 pm, October 14 and October 28, 2013. This will cover basic statistical methods and sample size calculations. These will be helpful in preparing research proposals. Attendance is MANDATORY.

The second part of SoCRATES will take place over 3 half days May 20-22, 2015. Again, attendance is MANDATORY unless you are on a clerkship or out of town foryour Discovery project. Videotaped talks will be made available online for students doing their research project away from Emory or in a clerkship.

An exam will be given at the completion of SoCRATES that contributes 10% of thefinal grade

SoCRATES: Short Course in Clinical Research and Translational Experience in Science.

You may spend up to one half day per week seeing patients in the clinic other than for activities that are part of your Discovery project.

Two weeks of vacation may be taken during the 5 month Discovery Phase. This canbe at the beginning, the end or at some time during this period. The timing is tobe arranged with your Mentor.

You have the option to split Discovery into 4 + 1 months if this works better with your data collection or your overall schedule with regard to residency apps, away rotations, etc. HOWEVER, no schedules other than 5 month or 4+1 months, and nostart dates other than March-July will be permitted without the consent of Dr. Powers. Discovery must be completed by December 31, 2015.

The +1 month is not meant to be spent on residency interviews. You are given a monthof time for your interviews.

Schedule during Discovery

Your mentor must be OK with your desired schedule, both start date and breakdownof 5 months or 4 + 1.

Things may change from your original plans. The most important thing is to letus know of significant changes.

Changes during Discovery

Your project may vary from your starting proposal. This is the nature of research andIt is fine. You do not need to let us know if your research is taking a different direction from what was planned. We do not compare your final paper to your proposal.

Other changes may be highly significant. If your mentor leaves Emory in the middle of Discovery (this has happened) or some other event necessitates a change in mentor, you MUST contact us. We will work with you in identifying a new qualified mentor.

If you change your Discovery schedule, let us know.

If you run into major or insurmountable problems with your mentor, please get in touch. We can help in resolving them or, if not possible, help you find a new mentor/project.

If you decide you want to extend Discovery and do a year of research, please let us know ASAP. You will do all parts of Discovery but you will submit your Final paper and participate in Research Day with the 2017 class.

This will pair an Emory mentor with an idea for a useful new device with a Discovery student and a team of GaTech BME senior undergrads who will develop a prototype.

The Discovery student will continue on with testing of the prototype inclinical or laboratory applications.

The Discovery student would most likely need to start in March or April to Interface with the BME students in their Capstone course.

Will probably pilot this with 3 or 4 Discovery students.

Pilot program with Georgia Tech BME

So far, limited response from faculty.

The ACTSI Center grant has funding for 5 mini-grants of $ 5K to Discovery students.

Atlanta Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute mini-grants

These grants are specifically to support new technology development. They should:

* Emphasize innovative technology * Focus on translational and implementation research * Be aligned with the ACTSI program goals (see actsi.org for more information).

Applications will have a limit of 6 pages and include:

* Cover letter* Research proposal with references* Letter of Support from Mentor* Budget.

 

Deadline for submission is February 27, 2015. Grants will be awarded by April 1, 2015 and money needs to be spent by May 31, 2015.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism

PlagiarismAny written work (ie Research Proposal, Final Paper) must be written in your own words.

You may (and are encouraged to) read any papers, grants, or other materials from your mentor or research group in preparing your proposal or paper.

You may NOT copy them.

Plagiarism is subject to the Emory SOM Honor Council and is punished seriously.

If you are continuing with a project initiated by a previous Discovery student, you muststill write your own proposal.

Discovery Evaluations

Approximately half way through Discovery we will send a very brief questionaire to students and mentors to check in and see that things are proceeding well.

After completion of the Discovery Phase, a final paper is due (January 13, 2014).This is an 8-10 page paper in the format of a scientific/medical manuscript. A manuscriptsubmitted from the Mentor’s group on which the student is a middle author is NOT acceptable. A manuscript on which the student is first author and was responsible for preparation of the manuscript IS acceptable. Case reports are NEVER permissable. More information on this will be provided as the time gets closer.

At the end of the Discovery Phase the Mentor will submit an evaluation for the student and students will be asked to evaluate their experience and their mentors.

All students will present their research as either a talk or a poster atMedical Student Research Day, April 2015 (exact date TBD). This will be part of the Capstone course. You are invited to attend the presentations from the current class April 17, 2014. How are speakers chosen????

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We don’t have any.

There are some funds from the SOM to help with the costs of international travel expenses for people doing international (not domestic) Discovery projects.

Dr. Churchward has been able to facilitate printing of posters at below cost, about $10.

Unfortunately we can not provide funds to help defray the cost of travel to meetingsto present your findings.

We have been working on a list of organizations, foundations or societies that haveFellowships for medical student research. These include: Global Health, ID, Aging, Leukemia/Lymphoma, Urology, Pediatrics, Radiology. Also the ACTSI Technology mini-grants.

$$$$

But there is some good new about money:

Final papers and Research Day

Final Papers will be due January 14, 2016. This is a VERY hard deadline.

Medical Student Research Day will be April 21, 2016. This is an all day affair with an eminent visiting Keynote speaker and presenta-tions from all your classmates. Please do not commit to anything else before 6 PM on this date.

Final Papers will be reviewed by 2 members of the MSRC. You will receive a numerical grade for your paper and 2 sets of comments. We make every effort to get at least 1 of the reviewers from your field.

Choosing speakers – this is done from reviewers comments and suggestions,and an attempt to create a balanced program.

The Research Proposal

Title page. Give the title of your project and list the investigators to be involved.The title should succinctly describe the project. List as investigators yourself, your Mentor(s), their Emory department Affiliation and, if the project is not to be conducted at Emory, indicate the research site and affiliation.

Introduction/Background. Provide a description of the area or issue to beinvestigated. This should contain sufficient information to allow your proposalto be understood by a non-specialist in the field. Try to limit the amount of jargon.Be sure to include the medical significance of the issue to be investigated.

Hypothesis: State in a sentence or two the specific hypothesis to be tested. Typically a Null Hypothesis is not used.

Research Proposal continued:

Specific Aims: Enumerate the specific goals or testable questions to be addressedin the project. There will likely be 2 to 3 of these; be reasonable about what can be achieved in 5 months. To learn the literature or attend group meetings are NOT specific aims.

Research Design: Describe how the project will be carried out. Include experi-mental methods, state how the resulting data will be analyzed including description of statistical analyses if applicable. Briefly state the manner in which patient consent and confidentiality will be addressed, if applicable. This should be the largest section of the proposal. If you are doing clinical research you must include a sample size calculation.

Literature Cited: Give literature references for any papers cited. Use a format thatincludes full article title and authors as well as the citation. References do not counttoward the 2 page limit for the proposal.

Student Role in project: State specifically what YOU will be doing.