Clinical Research Center
The overall goal of this elective is to teach residents the essentials of patient-oriented research. The rotation provides residents with the basic knowledge and skill to perform research on patients; to plan a career or fellowship program involving clinical research; to understand how guidelines for management and treatment develop from information derived from patient research; and to critically review and use the scientific literature. The specific goals are for the resident to critique a clinical research proposal, to review a manuscript dealing with clinical research, to be able to describe and apply basic statistical tests, to learn how to set up and manage a computerized data base, to describe dietary variables for clinical research, to understand basic laboratory methods and quality control criteria, and to participate in the execution of a clinical research protocol.

Research Elective
Working with a faculty mentor, residents plan and design their own research electives to achieve individual goals, which range from simple exposure to a certain type of research to initiation or maintenance of an ongoing research project. This can range from chart reviews to experiences in basic research laboratories. Three MEASURABLE goals must be defined for the rotation in advance and will be used as the standard to evaluate your performance during that month. All residents participating in a special research elective must submit an abstract to the Department of Medicine Research Competition for the subsequent April. A special form complete with your mentor's signature is required AT THE TIME OF THE REQUEST in order to be eligible for consideration. For more details, see the Special Electives Policy.