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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 four-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 of area of medicine. Students will learn to formulate a research question or hypothesis, frame a project to address the question/hypothesis, and will synthesize and present the findings.
Outputs include literature reviews, posters, and flash-talk presentations in the pre-clerkship years. In the first year, they will work in teams and in the second, they will work individually. During the clerkship years, each student will generate a Capstone project.
Students are encouraged to find research projects in basic or clinical sciences with the ultimate goal of publishing their findings in a peer-reviewed journal. 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
- Research 101 (coming soon)
- Institutional Review Board (IRB) - when planning for human subjects research
- Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) - animal welfare program
- Creating a Professional Poster (video)
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)
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 in Molecular Cell Biology and Neuroscience
The combined DO/PhD degree program is offered through Rowan-Virtua SOM and the departments of "Cell Biology and Neuroscience" and "Molecular Biology." Graduates of this dual program 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 DO/PhD program 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. Carl Hock, senior associate dean of SOM Research, at hock@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.