Maximizing Research Opportunities During Your Preliminary Medicine Residency

Why Research Matters During a Preliminary Medicine Year

For many MD graduates, a preliminary medicine year (prelim IM) is a transitional step: a required base year before anesthesia, neurology, radiology, dermatology, PM&R, or other advanced specialties. Because it is “just one year,” some residents assume there is no realistic opportunity for research during residency in this setting.

That assumption can quietly disadvantage you.

Even in a single-year preliminary medicine residency, well-chosen resident research projects can:

• Strengthen your application to an advanced specialty or fellowship
• Build relationships and mentorship in an academic environment
• Sharpen critical thinking, literature appraisal, and data interpretation skills
• Generate posters, presentations, and possibly publications
• Demonstrate initiative and scholarly productivity—particularly valuable if your allopathic medical school match did not land you in your ideal specialty on the first try

This article is written specifically for the MD graduate residency audience completing a prelim IM year. It will walk you through realistic ways to do research during residency, how to choose feasible projects within a busy schedule, and how to leverage those projects for an academic residency track or fellowship later on.

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Understanding the Landscape: Research in a One-Year Prelim IM Program

A preliminary medicine year is different from a categorical internal medicine residency in scope and timing. Understanding these differences is key to planning effective research.

Structural Realities of a Prelim Year

Most preliminary medicine programs share common characteristics:

• Duration: 12 months, with no internal medicine continuity clinic after the year
• Schedule: High-intensity rotations—general wards, ICU, nights, emergency medicine, subspecialty consults
• Priorities: Service-heavy schedules with strong focus on immediate patient care
• Long-term continuity: You will likely leave the institution after one year to join your advanced specialty

All of this means:

• Longitudinal or multi-year resident research projects are usually not realistic
• You need projects that can reach at least a presentable endpoint (poster, abstract, QI presentation) within 6–10 months
• You must be efficient and intentional about choosing mentors, topics, and project scope

Types of Research That Fit a Prelim Year

In this context, the best research during residency options are those that are time-bound and relatively contained:

1. Case reports and case series

   • Feasible with one or a few interesting patients
   • Short timeline (weeks to a few months)
   • Ideal starting point if you’ve never published before

2. Retrospective chart reviews

   • Use existing data from EMR
   • No need to recruit patients prospectively
   • Can be completed with well-defined inclusion criteria and narrow aims

3. Quality improvement (QI) and patient safety projects

   • Integrate directly with your clinical work
   • Often supported institutionally (e.g., required QI curriculum)
   • Can result in internal presentations and sometimes publications

4. Educational research

   • Curriculum evaluations, learner assessments, or teaching innovations
   • Good if you are interested in medical education or academic residency tracks

5. Secondary data analyses

   • Using already collected datasets from your mentor’s prior work
   • Time-efficient compared to launching new data collection

Laboratory-based, bench research or complex prospective clinical trials rarely fit into a single prelim IM year—unless you are joining an ongoing project with well-defined, small tasks.

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Finding and Securing Research Opportunities in a Prelim Year

You have very little time. The earlier you move, the better your outcome.

Step 1: Clarify Your End Goal

Before you say yes to any project, ask yourself:

• What specialty or fellowship am I aiming for after this prelim IM year?
• Do I want to pursue an academic residency track later (e.g., clinician-investigator, physician-scientist, medical education)?
• What type of research aligns best with that path—clinical, translational, QI, education, health services, or basic science?

Examples:

• If you’re headed for neurology, a project on stroke pathways, delirium in the ICU, or seizure management in hospitalized patients is highly relevant.
• If you plan to match into radiology, imaging-based retrospective reviews (e.g., PE CT utilization, incidental findings) can showcase your alignment with that field.
• For anesthesia, research on perioperative medicine, pre-op optimization, or post-op complications fits well.

Having a clear direction allows you to choose projects that tell a coherent story in your future applications.

Step 2: Map the Institutional Ecosystem

Within the first 2–4 weeks of your preliminary medicine residency:

1. Review program materials

   • Resident handbook, intranet, or onboarding slides often list research directors, QI leads, and scholarly opportunities.

2. Identify key people

   • Program Director (PD) and Associate PDs
   • Research Director or Vice Chair for Research
   • Quality & Safety Officer or QI Director
   • Specialty leads (e.g., chief of neurology, radiology, anesthesia) if you know your target field

3. Check for structured programs

   • Resident research tracks (even if designed for categorical residents—you may still tap in)
   • Protected research time electives
   • Internal research days or “scholarly activity” requirements

Create a one-page map with names, roles, and contact info. This becomes your navigation chart for resident research projects.

Step 3: Strategic Networking as a New Prelim Resident

Your goal in the first 1–3 months is to meet mentors who have ongoing, feasible projects.

Practical approaches:

• Ask senior residents and chief residents:

  • “Who is actively publishing and good at mentoring residents?”
  • “Are there existing resident research projects that need help with data collection or analysis?”

• Use early rotations for reconnaissance:
  During ward and consult rotations, note attendings who:

  • Mention ongoing research or publications
  • Present data or QI results on rounds
  • Are involved in guideline committees, conferences, or specialty societies

• Set up brief 20-minute meetings:
  Email template:

  Dear Dr. [Name],

  I am a new preliminary medicine resident with an interest in [target specialty or topic area]. I am hoping to get involved in a focused research or QI project that would be feasible to complete or bring to a presentable stage during this one-year prelim IM program.

  Would you be willing to meet briefly to discuss any ongoing projects where an additional resident could contribute?

  Thank you for your time and consideration.
  Sincerely,
  [Your Name], MD, Preliminary Medicine Resident

Prepare 2–3 sentences about your goals and time constraints so mentors understand the scope right away.

Step 4: Evaluate Projects for Feasibility

Once you identify possible research during residency opportunities, assess:

• Timeline: Can you get to a poster/abstract/submission within 6–10 months?
• Your role: Is there a clearly defined chunk of work that’s manageable given your schedule?
• Mentor responsiveness: Does the mentor answer emails and seem organized?
• Resources: Is IRB already approved for chart review? Is a dataset already available?

Red flags for a prelim IM resident:

• “We’ll need to design and submit an IRB from scratch and recruit patients prospectively over 2–3 years.”
• “We’re still brainstorming aims; we haven’t settled on a direction yet.”
• “I’m very busy, but I’ll try to meet you in a few months.”

Look instead for:

• Existing IRB-approved projects needing help with data collection, extraction, or analysis
• Completed datasets that require cleaning, descriptive statistics, and manuscript drafting
• Case reports or case series already partly assembled

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Designing Realistic Projects: What You Can Actually Complete

Even within a demanding preliminary medicine year, you can produce meaningful resident research projects by working smart, not just working hard.

1. Case Reports and Case Series

Why they work for prelim residents:

• Based directly on patients you’ve already cared for
• Limited scope (1–10 patients)
• Often suitable for specialty-specific case report journals or online supplemental sections of mainstream journals

Steps:

1. Identify an unusual or educational case: rare diagnosis, atypical presentation, novel complication, unexpected side effect, or striking imaging finding.
2. Discuss with the attending and ask if they’d like to collaborate.
3. Review journal case-report guidelines early (word count, format, image requirements).
4. Perform a focused literature review to show what’s new or instructive.
5. Draft with a resident-favorable division of labor: you write the first draft, mentor provides feedback and final edits.

Timeline: 4–8 weeks from idea to submission if prioritized.

2. Retrospective Chart Reviews

Excellent fit for MD graduate residency trainees wanting a more substantial clinical research experience.

Example aimed at an anesthesia-bound resident:

• Question: Among patients undergoing major surgery, what is the association between pre-operative beta-blocker dose and post-op hypotension requiring vasopressors?
• Design: Single-center retrospective chart review of surgical patients over 2–3 years.
• Your tasks:
  • Help refine inclusion/exclusion criteria
  • Use EMR to extract key variables into REDCap or Excel
  • Work with biostatistics support for analysis
  • Draft intro, methods, and results sections

Key feasibility strategies:

• Join a project with IRB already approved.
• Narrow the question and the dataset (e.g., single unit, single type of surgery, single disease state).
• Set specific milestones: data extraction by Month 5, analysis by Month 7, abstract or manuscript draft by Month 9.

3. Quality Improvement & Patient Safety Projects

Many prelim IM programs explicitly require QI. This can be your most straightforward way into research during residency.

Features:

• Often don’t require full IRB approval (depending on your institution’s policy)
• Integrated into clinical care (hand hygiene, VTE prophylaxis, code status documentation, etc.)
• Ideal for internal medicine wards, ICU, or cross-coverage systems

Example for a prelim IM resident headed for radiology:

• Problem: Frequent delays in obtaining CT scans for inpatients due to incomplete orders.
• QI Aim: Increase the percentage of complete CT orders (all required fields) from 60% to 90% within 4 months.
• Interventions: Order-set redesign, provider education, checklist reminders.
• Outcome Measures: Time from order entry to scan start; rate of order clarifications.

Result: You can present this at your institution’s QI day, radiology or internal medicine conferences, and potentially submit to a QI journal.

4. Educational and Curriculum-Based Research

If you’re considering an academic residency track with focus on teaching or medical education, education research is an option.

Examples:

• Evaluating a new simulation-based code blue training for interns
• Assessing the impact of a new EHR training module on intern efficiency
• Studying the effect of structured feedback tools on resident performance in ICU

Feasibility tips:

• Partner with the program’s education leadership or chief residents
• Keep data collection modest (surveys, pre/post tests, small focus groups)
• Aim for an abstract at an education-focused meeting (e.g., SGIM, APDIM)

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Time Management: Balancing Service and Scholarship

You will often be post-call, post-night-float, or on a busy ward month. The key is to use small pockets of time strategically.

Identify Your Protected Windows

Realistically, your research productivity will spike during:

• Elective or ambulatory blocks
• Rotations with lighter call schedules
• Vacation weeks (if you are willing to allocate a portion to writing or analysis)
• Post-call afternoons, especially if you can carve 1–2 hours of focused time

Plan your project timeline around these windows. For example:

• Months 1–2: Identify mentors and projects; define scope.
• Months 3–5: Data collection (chart review, surveys, QI metrics).
• Months 6–8: Data analysis and interpretation.
• Months 9–11: Draft abstracts/manuscripts; submit to conferences.
• Month 12: Final edits, poster presentations, documentation for your CV and ERAS.

Use Structured Tools and Micro-Goals

• Project management tools: Trello, Notion, or a simple shared Google Doc with timeline.
• Micro-goals approach:
  • 30 minutes: Clean 20 charts or refine one table
  • 45 minutes: Write one paragraph of the introduction
  • 1 hour: Revise the abstract and email it to your mentor

Never wait for a full “free day” to make progress; those are rare in preliminary medicine.

Communicating Boundaries and Expectations

Be upfront with mentors about:

• Your call schedule and heavy rotations
• Time-limited nature of your prelim IM year
• Your intended last date at the institution

Ask explicitly:

• “What parts of this project can I realistically complete during this year?”
• “What would be my authorship position based on that contribution?”
• “If the project extends after I leave, how will we communicate and credit contributions?”

Clear early communication avoids frustration later.

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Leveraging Your Research for Future Opportunities

Research during your preliminary medicine year is only as powerful as how you present and use it.

Documenting and Showcasing Productivity

Update your CV and ERAS:

• Separate sections for:
  • Peer-reviewed manuscripts (submitted, accepted, or published)
  • Abstracts and posters
  • Oral presentations
  • QI projects and outcomes

Include specifics:

• Title, authorship order, journal or conference name, date
• Whether research was done during your allopathic medical school match period or prelim IM residency year

Programs reviewing advanced specialty applications often look favorably on MD graduate residency candidates who show continued scholarly productivity beyond medical school.

Tailoring Your Story for Advanced Specialties

When applying for advanced positions (e.g., dermatology, radiology, neurology, anesthesia), explicitly connect:

• What you learned from your prelim IM resident research projects
• How those skills translate to your target specialty
• Why your experience positions you for an academic residency track or fellowship

Examples:

• “Through my retrospective study on post-op hypotension, I developed skills in EMR data extraction and outcome analysis that I plan to apply to perioperative risk modeling in anesthesia.”
• “My QI project improving workflow around MRI safety screening strengthened my understanding of imaging-based systems and interdepartmental coordination, informing my interest in radiology practice improvement.”

Staying Involved After the Prelim Year Ends

Even after you’ve left the preliminary medicine residency program:

• Stay in email contact with your mentor at least every 1–2 months until the project concludes.
• Be available for revisions, responses to reviewers, and final edits.
• Use institutional or personal email that you will still have access to.

Ongoing contributions after you leave show reliability and help secure strong future letters of recommendation.

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Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Pitfall 1: Overcommitting Early

Accepting multiple projects in the first month can backfire. Better strategy:

• Start with one primary project and perhaps one smaller, low-intensity project (e.g., case report).
• Reassess at 3–4 months before taking on anything new.

Pitfall 2: Not Clarifying Authorship

Ambiguous authorship can sour relationships. Early in the process, ask:

• “Given the work we’re outlining, where do you envision my authorship position?”
• “What would I need to contribute realistically to be first author?”

Put mutual understanding in an email summary after the meeting.

Pitfall 3: Being Too Passive

Waiting for your mentor to drive every step slows momentum. You should:

• Propose drafts and outlines
• Suggest meetings to review progress
• Come with specific questions rather than “What should I do next?”

Pitfall 4: Ignoring Institutional Requirements

Some institutions require:

• IRB or quality improvement review board approval, even for QI
• Specific training modules (e.g., CITI, HIPAA research training)
• Data use agreements

Check these early to avoid delays.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Is it realistic to do research during a one-year preliminary medicine residency?

Yes—if you choose the right type of projects. Longitudinal, multi-year trials are not realistic, but:

• Case reports and series
• Retrospective chart reviews with existing IRB approval
• Focused QI projects
• Small educational studies
  are usually manageable. The goal is to reach at least a presentable endpoint (poster, abstract, or manuscript draft) within the 12 months.

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2. How much research do I need to be competitive for an advanced specialty after a prelim IM year?

There is no single number, but for many competitive specialties, reviewers like to see:

• Ongoing scholarly activity beyond your allopathic medical school match cycle
• At least one or two new tangible outputs (poster, abstract, or paper) arising from your MD graduate residency period
• Coherence with your target field (e.g., neurology-related projects if you’re applying to neurology)

Quality, relevance, and clear impact on your skills and interests matter more than raw quantity.

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3. Can quality improvement projects “count” as research?

In many programs and specialties, yes. Well-designed QI projects:

• Demonstrate understanding of systems-based practice
• Produce measurable outcomes
• Are often presented at institutional or national meetings
• Can be written up for QI or clinical journals

When listing them, clearly label them as “Quality Improvement” and describe methods and outcomes so reviewers appreciate the rigor.

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4. What if my preliminary program has limited formal research infrastructure?

You still have options:

• Seek mentors in departments aligned with your future specialty (e.g., neurology, radiology, anesthesia) rather than only within internal medicine.
• Focus on case reports, small retrospective reviews, or simple QI projects that don’t require extensive infrastructure.
• Collaborate with faculty who have ongoing projects and just need resident help with data or writing.
• Use remote collaboration tools to work with prior mentors from your medical school, while linking the project to clinical experience in your prelim year when appropriate.

Your initiative, clarity of goals, and strategic project selection often matter more than the size of the institution.

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Pursuing research during a preliminary medicine year is entirely achievable for an MD graduate, even with service-heavy rotations. By prioritizing feasibility, aligning projects with your future specialty, and communicating clearly with mentors, you can transform a single-year prelim IM experience into a launchpad for an academic residency track, fellowships, and a scholarly career.