Scholarly Productivity & Innovation

A supportive community for scholarly research

The Frist College of Medicine Scholarly Productivity and Innovation Unit is committed to fostering a caring, inclusive, solution-oriented culture that supports faculty and student researchers.

Student Scholarly Productivity Opportunities

Consistent with our values of inquiry and critical thinking, MD students at the FCoM will be given the opportunity to complete a scholarly project prior to graduation. Students will be expected to approach their project with rigor, and will have support, as described below, to select a scholarly project that is closely aligned with their interests and professional goals.

Opportunities for students will include basic science research, clinical and translational research, quality improvement projects, health disparity research, case reports, and global health initiatives. Others may select projects with a concentration in the science of teaching and learning, interprofessional scholarship, or community-based projects. Regardless of the selected project, all scholarly work will have defined learning objectives and assessments tailored to the specific type of project, with an emphasis on scientific methodology and assessment of outcome measures.

Students can initiate a scholarly project during the summer between year 1 and year 2, as an elective. The topic of the scholarly project will be flexible to allow for different student interests. Each scholarly project will be required to demonstrate the application of all six scientific method steps. Possible areas students could explore include basic science research, clinical/translational research, quality improvement projects, medical education projects, global health initiatives, community health, health systems, medical humanities and policy, or bioethics.

Research Training in the MD Program

An ‘introduction to research topics’ didactic series will be presented within the first year of the foundation phase and will include instruction on all six steps of the Scientific Method as defined by the LCME:

1. Identifying and defining a problem
2. Accumulating relevant data
3. Formulating a tentative hypothesis
4. Conducting experiments to test the hypothesis
5. Interpreting the results objectively
6. Repeating the steps until an acceptable solution is found

The instruction will include didactics and small group sessions. Students will be required to review scientific articles while considering the steps listed above. Students will gain familiarity with different types of research, including basic science research, clinical trials, and clinical/translational research, and utilizing data science. Scientific literature will also be incorporated into active learning sessions during all subsequent foundation phase courses at least once per course. In small groups, students will discuss a primary research article, including its strengths and weaknesses, interpretation of the data, appropriate use of statistics, and adherence to the six steps of the scientific method.