Maximizing Research Opportunities During Your DO Graduate Residency

As a DO graduate entering a Preliminary Medicine (prelim IM) year, you’re in a unique—and time-limited—position. You have 12 months to build clinical competence, impress program leadership, and strategically position yourself for your categorical residency in another specialty (e.g., neurology, radiology, anesthesia, PM&R, dermatology, or categorical internal medicine). One of the most powerful ways to stand out: meaningful research during residency.

This guide is written specifically for DO graduates in a Preliminary Medicine year who want to leverage research to strengthen their long-term career trajectory, bolster future match applications, and explore potential academic residency tracks—without letting research compromise clinical performance.

---

Understanding Your Prelim Medicine Year as a DO Graduate

A preliminary medicine year is typically a one-year, non-categorical internal medicine experience that fulfills internship requirements for advanced specialties. For DO graduates, prelim IM often serves several purposes:

• Meeting ACGME or specialty-specific internship requirements
• Smoothing the transition from osteopathic medical school into an ACGME residency
• Providing US-based clinical experience for those with more limited exposure
• Strengthening re-application chances if you are re-entering the osteopathic residency match or ACGME Match for a categorical or advanced spot

What Makes Research Different in a Prelim Year?

Compared to a categorical IM resident:

• Shorter timeline: You have only 12 months (often less in practice due to orientation, exams, and adjustment).
• Heavy clinical load: Prelim IM rotations are often inpatient-heavy (wards, ICU, night float).
• Less built-in continuity: You may not have continuity clinic or long-term subspecialty electives where research relationships naturally develop.
• Future specialty may be elsewhere: Your ultimate field (e.g., cardiology vs radiology vs neurology) might differ from the projects available at your prelim site.

Despite these challenges, prelim residents—especially motivated DO graduates—can and do produce meaningful resident research projects. The key is realistic planning, targeted alignment with your future specialty, and efficient execution.

---

Why Research Matters for DO Graduates in a Prelim Medicine Year

Many DO graduates wonder whether it’s worth investing precious time into research during a single-year internship, especially when they’re already balancing board exams, new responsibilities, and often a new city. The benefits, however, can be substantial.

1. Strengthening Future Residency or Fellowship Applications

If you are:

• Re-applying for a categorical IM or another osteopathic residency match, or
• Planning to apply to a competitive advanced specialty (e.g., dermatology, radiology, anesthesiology, PM&R, neurology), or
• Considering an academic residency track or future fellowship

then any research output—especially peer-reviewed publications, posters, or abstracts—adds weight to your application.

Programs often view:

• Evidence of scholarship as a proxy for curiosity and work ethic
• Publications as a marker of future academic productivity
• Project involvement as proof that you can balance competing demands

For DO graduates who sometimes face extra scrutiny in competitive specialties, research can function as a differentiator, helping demonstrate parity with, or superiority to, applicants from more research-intense MD institutions.

2. Building an Academic Identity—even in a Single Year

Even in a prelim year, you can:

• Develop an early area of interest (e.g., quality improvement, hospital medicine, population health, medical education, subspecialty focus)
• Establish yourself as “the resident who likes X topic” (e.g., anticoagulation safety, heart failure readmissions, stroke protocols)
• Begin a trajectory that can continue at your next institution

This is particularly advantageous if you are eyeing roles that value research, such as:

• Chief residency in an academic program
• Future faculty positions
• Fellowships at academic centers
• Leadership in quality improvement or patient safety

3. Gaining Skills You’ll Use Throughout Your Career

Research during residency doesn’t just generate lines on your CV. It also teaches:

• Critical appraisal of the literature
• Practical statistics and study design
• IRB and regulatory processes
• Data management and ethics
• How to collaborate with interprofessional teams (nurses, pharmacists, data analysts)

These skills translate directly into:

• Better patient care decisions
• Leadership in quality and safety initiatives
• Comfort participating in or leading resident research projects later on

---

Types of Research You Can Realistically Do in a Prelim IM Year

Not all research projects are equally feasible in a one-year training block. As a DO prelim resident, focus on high-yield, time-efficient project types that can be started and substantially advanced during your limited time.

1. Case Reports and Case Series

Best for: Busy interns with limited research background who encounter an unusual or instructive patient case.

• Pros

  • Often the fastest route to a first publication
  • Teaches literature review and manuscript structure
  • Can involve small teams (you + attending + possibly a co-resident or student)
  • Excellent starting point for those without prior research experience

• Cons

  • Lower academic “weight” compared to original research
  • Dependent on encountering suitable cases and timely IRB/consent procedures (if required by your institution)

Actionable tip:
On interesting admissions or rounds, get in the habit of asking:
“Is this case publishable or educational enough for a case report?”
If yes, briefly discuss with your attending and see if they’re willing to mentor and co-author.

2. Quality Improvement (QI) and Patient Safety Projects

Best for: Residents interested in hospital medicine, leadership, or applied problem-solving.

QI projects are often the most natural and practical type of resident research projects in a prelim year:

• Examples

  • Reducing unnecessary telemetry use
  • Improving venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis rates
  • Streamlining sepsis antibiotic timing
  • Increasing vaccination documentation on admission
  • Optimizing discharge summary quality

• Advantages

  • Often pre-approved or streamlined by institutional QI committees
  • Direct, visible impact on patient care and workflows
  • Frequently presentable at local or regional QI conferences
  • Can be turned into abstracts, posters, and sometimes publications

QI is especially valuable if you are considering:

• Hospitalist careers
• Administrative or leadership roles
• An academic residency track focused on systems improvement

3. Retrospective Chart Reviews (Clinical Observational Studies)

Best for: Residents with moderate research experience or strong mentorship, and some protected or lighter rotations.

Retrospective chart review projects are common in internal medicine:

• Examples

  • Evaluating outcomes of a certain protocol (e.g., insulin order sets)
  • Comparing readmission rates before and after a hospital policy change
  • Describing characteristics of a patient population (e.g., COPD exacerbations)

• Challenges

  • Requires IRB approval or exemption
  • Needs access to data and familiarity with EMR querying (often via data analysts)
  • Data cleaning and analysis can be time-consuming

For a prelim resident, these projects are doable if:

• The research question is tightly focused
• You join an existing project with infrastructure already in place
• The attending or senior resident commits to guiding the analysis and manuscript

4. Education Research

If you’re interested in medical education or likely to pursue chief residency, education-focused projects can be a good fit:

• Designing or evaluating a new intern curriculum (e.g., for cross-cover, night float, or acute care)
• Assessing impact of simulation training on intern skills
• Studying changes in learner confidence after a new workshop

These often align well with the short, project-based timeline of a prelim year and can be excellent stepping stones toward future academic roles.

5. Joining Ongoing Multicenter or Specialty-Oriented Studies

If your future specialty is fairly defined (e.g., neurology, anesthesiology, radiology), ask attendings and program leadership:

• “Are there any ongoing multicenter or subspecialty studies I can help with—data collection, chart review, or literature review?”

This approach allows you to:

• Align your research with your intended field
• Potentially maintain ongoing collaboration even after you leave the prelim IM program
• Build specialty-specific research experience attractive to future programs

---

Practical Strategies to Launch Research During Your Prelim Year

The biggest barrier isn’t usually interest—it’s time and structure. Below are step-by-step strategies tailored to a DO graduate in a preliminary medicine role.

1. Start Early—Much Earlier Than You Think

Your effective research window might be:

• PGY-1 months 2–9, with:
  • Month 1: Orientation and adjustment
  • Months 10–12: Peak application/interview season for some specialties, plus fatigue and graduation prep

Timeline suggestion:

• July–August: Identify mentors, attend research/QI meetings, explore ongoing projects.
• September–October: Finalize a feasible project question, obtain IRB/QI approval if needed.
• November–February: Collect data, write abstracts, and submit to conferences.
• March–June: Finalize manuscripts, prepare posters, and clarify ongoing responsibilities if project will continue after you leave.

2. Identify the Right Mentors for a Prelim Resident

As a preliminary resident, you’re only at the institution for one year, which can make some faculty less inclined to invest in a long-term project. Mitigate this by being:

• Clear: About your time frame and goals
• Efficient: Demonstrate reliability and punctuality
• Strategic: Choose mentors who are actively productive

Where to look for mentors:

• Program Director (PD) or Associate PD for research
• Hospitalist or subspecialty attendings heavily involved in QI or research
• Faculty who supervise resident journal clubs or M&M (morbidity & mortality) conferences
• DO faculty or alumni who may be particularly supportive of a fellow DO graduate

Opening lines to use:

• “I’m a DO prelim medicine resident and very interested in research related to [X]. Are there ongoing projects where an intern could help in a meaningful way?”
• “I have a limited one-year timeline, but I’m willing to put in consistent effort. Is there a smaller, well-defined project we could reasonably complete or substantially advance this year?”

---

Balancing Clinical Duties with Research: Time Management Tactics

Your primary job as a prelim IM resident is patient care and learning. Research is additive; it must not undermine clinical performance or wellness. That said, you can still build a research portfolio with disciplined time management.

1. Use Low-Intensity Rotations Wisely

Most prelim IM schedules have:

• Heavy inpatient months (wards, ICU, night float)
• Some lighter rotations (ambulatory blocks, elective, consult months)

Plan to:

• Identify your lighter months early (ask your chief resident or scheduler).
• Reserve major tasks—data collection, analysis, manuscript drafting—for these rotations.
• During heavy months, focus on small, incremental tasks (e.g., literature searches, outlining, emailing mentors).

2. Micro-Tasking: 20–30 Minutes at a Time

You don’t need long blocks to move a project forward:

• 20 minutes to refine a research question
• 25 minutes to complete a focused literature search
• 15 minutes to write one paragraph of a case report
• 30 minutes to clean a small subset of data

Protect these short windows:

• Early morning before sign-out (if realistic)
• Post-call afternoons (if well-rested)
• Weekend mornings before going off-duty

3. Set Clear, Written Mini-Goals

Convert vague intentions into specific, trackable tasks:

Instead of: “Work on research this month.”
Use:

• “By Friday: finalize case report outline and confirm authorship order.”
• “By the 15th: submit IRB proposal.”
• “By end of the month: finish data collection on first 75 patients.”

Checking off small goals builds momentum and demonstrates reliability to mentors.

4. Protect Your Wellness

Burnout will sabotage both clinical performance and research. As a DO graduate, you may already appreciate holistic wellness principles; apply them here:

• Maintain sleep hygiene whenever possible
• Be selective—one well-executed project beats five half-finished ones
• Use your osteopathic training (e.g., OMT for self-care, body mechanics to reduce fatigue where applicable) to sustain your stamina

If research begins to undermine your clinical reliability or health, communicate early with your mentor and adjust timelines or scope.

---

Choosing Projects That Align With Your Future Specialty

Because a prelim year is inherently transitional, align research during residency with your future goals.

If You’re Targeting a Specific Specialty

• Neurology: Stroke protocols, TIA workups, anticoagulation management, delirium studies.
• Radiology: Imaging appropriateness criteria, CT/MRI utilization, contrast safety.
• Anesthesiology: Perioperative optimization, postoperative pain control, PACU outcomes.
• PM&R: Functional outcomes after hospitalization, post-ICU syndrome, mobility initiatives.
• Dermatology: Inpatient derm consults, severe cutaneous reactions, complex rashes in immunocompromised patients.
• Cardiology: Heart failure readmission programs, inpatient telemetry use, ACS pathway adherence.

Even if your hospital doesn’t have that specialty strongly represented, you can often frame a general internal medicine or QI project in a way that still resonates with your target field.

If You’re Re-entering the Match or Aiming for Categorical IM

For DO graduates using a prelim IM year as a springboard into a categorical internal medicine position (or other ACGME/osteopathic residency match):

• Projects that show commitment to internal medicine—especially chronic disease management, complex inpatient care, or population health—can be persuasive.
• QI work tied to hospital medicine, readmissions, or transitions of care can signal interest in long-term internal medicine practice.

Building an Academic Trajectory

If you are specifically interested in an academic residency track, start collecting:

• Evidence of scholarly activity (abstracts, posters, publications)
• Experience presenting at internal conferences (M&M, noon conference, resident research days)
• Letters from research mentors highlighting your initiative and academic potential

Even if your prelim year only yields one or two concrete outputs, that may be enough to tilt an application toward an academic-focused program later.

---

Research Logistics: IRB, Authorship, and Staying Involved After Your Prelim Year

1. Understanding the IRB and QI Distinction

• IRB-approved studies typically involve systematic investigation designed to contribute to generalizable knowledge. Required for most retrospective studies, prospective trials, and many educational projects.
• QI projects may be exempt from full IRB if they meet institutional QI criteria; however, policies vary by hospital.

As a resident:

• Ask your mentor or research office: “Does this need IRB approval, or does it fall under QI?”
• Don’t start data collection beyond de-identified pilot work until you’re sure you’re compliant.

2. Clarifying Authorship Roles

Early in the project, discuss:

• Who will be first author?
• Who are co-authors and what contributions are expected?
• Who will be corresponding author after you graduate and leave?

As a prelim resident who will leave the institution, it’s usually wise for:

• A faculty mentor or senior resident to serve as corresponding author, especially for longer-term projects.
• You to aim for first authorship if you conceived the idea, did most of the work, and will contribute heavily to writing.

Get expectations in writing (even informally via email) to avoid misunderstandings later.

3. Maintaining Involvement After You Leave

Your prelim year ends, but your resident research projects can continue:

• Exchange personal contact information (not just institutional email) with mentors.
• Clarify whether you’ll help with:
  • Additional data collection (if remote access possible)
  • Manuscript drafting or editing
  • Preparing conference presentations or slides
• Keep the project on your CV as “In progress” or “Manuscript in preparation” until it’s accepted or presented.

Your future program may appreciate that you bring ongoing scholarly work into your new environment—especially if you then build on that momentum at your new institution.

---

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Pitfall 1: Overcommitting to Too Many Projects

A prelim resident’s worst enemy is project overload. Avoid:

• Saying “yes” to every opportunity because you’re eager
• Ending the year with multiple half-completed projects and no tangible outputs

Solution:
Limit yourself to 1–2 major projects plus possibly 1–2 case reports. Aim for completion, not sheer volume.

Pitfall 2: Choosing Projects with Long, Uncertain Timelines

Certain project types (e.g., long-term prospective trials, large multicenter RCTs) may not allow you to see meaningful results within your year.

Solution:
Select projects that:

• Have a defined, manageable scope
• Can reach a submit-ready abstract or manuscript within 6–9 months
• Are realistic given your clinical schedule and IRB constraints

Pitfall 3: Failing to Communicate Limitations

If your schedule changes, a rotation becomes unexpectedly heavy, or your energy flags, silence can erode trust with your mentor.

Solution:
Notify mentors early:

• “I’m on a heavy ICU month and will need to slow down project work for the next 4 weeks. After that, I have a lighter elective and can catch up.”

Most mentors respond well to transparent communication—especially when coupled with renewed commitment later.

---

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. As a DO graduate in a preliminary medicine year, is research really necessary?

Necessary? No. Valuable? Very often, yes.

Your first priority is to become a safe, competent intern. However, if you are:

• Targeting competitive specialties
• Re-entering the ACGME or osteopathic residency match
• Interested in academic medicine or leadership

then research during residency can significantly strengthen your profile. Even one solid abstract or publication can make a meaningful difference.

2. I have no prior research experience. Where should I start?

Begin with:

1. Case reports based on interesting patients you encounter—ask attendings if they see publishable potential.
2. Join ongoing QI projects; these often have less steep learning curves and more institutional support.
3. Attend your program’s research or QI meetings to see what’s active and who is mentoring residents.

You do not need to be an expert in biostatistics to contribute meaningfully.

3. How can I highlight my research from a prelim year when applying for my next residency?

On your ERAS or application:

• List all abstracts, posters, and publications under “Scholarly Activities.”
• Briefly describe any major QI or education projects and your specific role.
• Ask your research mentor for a letter of recommendation that speaks to:
  • Your initiative
  • Your reliability
  • Your potential as an academic or scholarly contributor

In interviews, be prepared to succinctly describe:

• Your research question
• Your key contributions
• What you learned and how it changed your practice

4. Can I still do meaningful research if my prelim program is community-based and not heavily academic?

Yes. Many community programs:

• Run robust QI initiatives
• Participate in multicenter registries or collaborations
• Have faculty who completed training at academic centers and still engage in scholarship

Look for:

• Hospital QI or patient safety committees
• Resident research days or poster sessions
• Local/regional meetings (ACP, specialty societies) where community-based projects are welcome

Well-designed projects from community settings can be highly impactful and often more generalizable to real-world practice.

---

Harnessing research during residency as a DO graduate in preliminary medicine is absolutely possible—even within the constraints of a single intense year. By starting early, choosing realistic project types, aligning with your long-term goals, and working closely with engaged mentors, you can finish your prelim IM year not only as a stronger clinician, but also with tangible scholarly achievements that will support your next step in training and beyond.