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Medical Student Research
Medical student research has been an integral piece of a successful Rowan-Virtua SOM education for more than 30 years. It is vital to have a holistic medical school experience, immersing yourself in classroom, clinical and research opportunities throughout your journey. Our students benefit from conducting research projects alongside our faculty researchers, in both clinical and basic science, beginning in their first year at SOM. Read more about its importance: Research experience offers an edge for residency applications.
Visit our Getting Started page to launch your research journey.
Explore examples of SOM medical student research from our annual SOM Research Day.
Medical Scholarship
Medical Scholarship is a three-year longitudinal curriculum designed to foster a spirit of inquiry and a knowledge base in the fundamentals of scholarly activities, critical to a career in any area of medicine. Students will learn to formulate a research question, systematically search the literature, synthesize evidence to answer the question, and share their findings.
Outputs include a group literature review and presentation in Year One. This format is expanded in Year Two with submission of an individual poster presentation on a topic of their choosing. Year Three is dedicated to generation of a publication-worthy Capstone Project which may be a literature review, research manuscript, or a clinical case report.
The course is a graduation requirement, in line with a holistic approach to medicine.
Resource links
- Medical Scholarship: Getting Started
- Library Resources for Researchers
- Search Google Scholar Like a Pro
- Education and CITI Training
- Institutional Review Board (IRB) - studies involving survey of faculty, students or other non-patient group
- Institutional Review Board (IRB) - studies involving patients or patient data
- Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) - animal welfare program
- Creating a Professional Poster (coming soon)
- Rowan Statistical Consulting Group (SCG)
Mentor and Program links
- Basic Science faculty - research interests
- Health Careers Opportunity Program (HCOP): Clinical Research, Education and Training Experiences (CREATE)
- Summer Medical Research Fellowship (SMRF) Program
- Rowan-Virtua SOM/Wilmington Veterans Affairs Program
- NIH Medical Research Scholars Program
- Research opportunities outside of Rowan-Virtua SOM (summer and year-round programs)
- Robert A. Winn Excellence in Clinical Trials Award Program
- MANNA Institute offers the Reid B. Reames Fellowship
Need Research Inspiration?
The annual Stratford Campus Research Day poster repository is a great place for research ideas, because it has past and present research projects from faculty, students, residents and fellows at SOM. Use the “Search” function to narrow down your interests by including a topic(s), faculty name, disease, etc. You can then drill down by discipline, keyword, or publication year. Click the title for abstract and poster information.
DO/PhD degrees offered in Cell and Molecular Biology or Neuroscience
There are two combined DO/PhD degree programs offered in partnership with Rowan-Virtua SOM and Rowan-Virtua TBES: one field of study is Cell and Molecular Biology and the other field of study is Neuroscience. Graduates of these dual programs will become physician scientists with the skills to not only practice medicine, but to contribute to the study of diseases, new medical treatments, clinical trials and become educators to the next generation of physicians.
Students must be admitted to SOM and must participate in the Summer Medical Research Fellowship during the summer after their first year. Students apply for this PhD program at Rowan-Virtua TBES during their second year of medical school.
If you would like to speak to a current DO/PhD student to understand how this path fits into their career goals and maybe yours, please contact Dr. Dianne Langford, dean of TBES, at langford@rowan.edu.American Physician Scientists Association
Our goals for this local chapter are to provide both financial and institutional support to current and potential physician scientists in training at Rowan-Virtua by:
- funding attendance to the annual APSA joint meeting,
- providing networking opportunities with alumni and other physician scientists throughout the country including, but not limited to, other osteopathic institutions, and
- building research repertoires.