The Office of Student Research (OSR) congratulates the second-year medical students (MS2s) on the completion of their summer research!
The summer research experience is a longstanding facet of the Yale research curriculum that provides students with the opportunity to engage in full-time, mentored research in the topic of their choice. Stipends are funded by OSR’s four NIH training grants, private donors, and the Yale School of Medicine (YSM) Dean’s Office.
The COVID-19 pandemic presented unique challenges to the entire YSM research community in the coordination and conduct of research in Summer 2020. Students pursuing mentored research experienced additional hurdles. OSR addressed these issues by:
- Extending the deadlines for funding
- Establishing a database of faculty mentors with ongoing projects amenable to students’ remote participation
- Implementing enhanced small group didactics to provide students additional opportunities to present their research and receive feedback
- Developing a new “nuts and bolts of research” curriculum
- Enhancing support of faculty mentors, and
- Offering regular 1:1 Zoom meetings and office hours for students involved in research.
OSR would like to thank the faculty who supported our students by serving as instructors and mentors this past summer, and acknowledge the support of the Levin-Forrest-Beeson Fund for Faculty Innovation in Student Research for course development.
However, the real credit goes to the MS2s, for pursuing their projects with the tenacity, dedication, ethics, and rigor that has come to define the Yale System of Medical Education. Of the 84 MS2s, 82 participated in and completed research projects this past summer across a range of topics, including, among others, health equity, health services, outcomes, and basic science. The work produced by the students is emblematic of the Yale tradition of training in the conduct and science of research in all medical domains.