Traditional Internal Medicine Hospital Resident Saeed Soleymanjahi, MD, MPH started looking for research projects and mentors during the first year of his residency training at Yale, and due to workloads and time constraints, found it challenging to get connected with mentors. Associate Program Director for the Internal Medicine Traditional Residency program Shaili Gupta, MBBS, had been examining ways to make research mentor/mentee connection easier over the last few years.
After surveying internal medicine residents, Soleymanjahi and Gupta learned that many of them shared similar experiences and desired a process to make identifying a mentor easier and faster for them.
“Residents in internal medicine are provided various opportunities to become involved in research, including Research-in-Residency that provides protected time. They also participate in capstone projects under Distinction Pathways for mentored development as investigators, innovators, and leaders. Residents seek mentorship on projects that excite them. Resident involvement in projects of shared interest is strongly desired by faculty conducting research. Identifying and establishing the right mentor/mentee connection by the traditional routes of email and meetings takes time however,” Gupta said.
“We have exceptional research resources in various departments at Yale. Additionally, we have excellent interest and motivation in our residents, so I wanted to design a way to match the residents and trainees with projects through a systemic approach,” Soleymanjahi said.
Soleymanjahi thought of an initiative to facilitate connection of residents with a research mentor and project in their field and department of interest through creation of a central database of mentors and research opportunities across different sections. He also aimed to help the residents with their research requirements such as career advice and future research planning, study design, statistical analysis, and scientific writing through pairing them with expert mentors and research consultants through this initiative. He proposed the initiative, now called Yale Triple R (Research Resources Repository), to program leadership. Mark Siegel, MD, program director of the Internal Medicine Traditional Residency program, strongly encouraged development of this initiative. Gupta fundamentally supported the idea and helped and mentored the development process.
Given significant expansion and broad reception of the initiative from research faculties and residents, Gupta and Soleymanjahi connected with the YSM Office of Communications tech team to partner on the Yale Triple R, which officially launched online in April 2023. Hosted on the Internal Medicine website, the new repository connects residents with a research mentor and provides one-on-one consultations with attending physicians and peers. The Triple R faculty advisory board has members from almost every section and boasts mentorship available from a variety of subspecialties. The program also includes a consultant team and a resident board.
“Program and department leadership have been very appreciative of this live site. Dr. Vincent Quagliarello has been phenomenally supportive of this initiative. The repository has made it much easier for our residents and interns to access these resources,” said Soleymanjahi and Gupta.
Currently, there are close to 40 research projects listed. Trainees can complete a short form if they are interested in joining a project, and mentors can add new projects as they arise.
The Yale Triple R site is available for use by internal medicine clinicians, researchers, educators, and trainees via the Internal Medicine website. If you have feedback on the Triple R, complete this Qualtrics survey.
The Department of Internal Medicine at Yale is among the nation's premier departments, bringing together an elite cadre of clinicians, investigators, educators, and staff in one of the world's top medical schools. To learn more, visit Internal Medicine.