I am a second-year internal medicine resident at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I am interested in pulmonary and critical care medicine. As part of my elective training, I did a research elective with Medical Data Research Collaboration and started learning and working with the group on different projects. I enjoyed the group dynamics and workflow. I attended multiple lab meetings, where I was able to learn from different great names with huge expertise about coming up with new ideas and questions that are interesting, reviewing the literature, data collection, formulating a working plan for new projects, and reviewing current work.

 

Being interested in research in the field of pulmonary and critical care, I decided to do a research elective under the supervision of Dr. Shalhoub and Dr. Salciccioli and work on a project with the title of “Lung cancer mortality in the United States between 1999 and 2019: an observational analysis of disparities by sex and race”.  We formed a team of researchers and had meetings to review the data. I started learning about how to lead a project, formulate the work plan, write the manuscript, divide the task, and efficiently communicate with co-others. I was also exposed to the process of deciding which journals to submit the research to by actively participating in discussions with senior authors and other experts in the group.

 

The experience helped me develop my expertise in the research field by actively working with experts in this field. The MDR Collaborative guided me through the research process throughout my project and helped me whenever I needed it. I am on the verge of submitting the paper as a lead author. This is the result of an amazing opportunity provided to me by the MDR collaboration, for which I am very thankful!