How to begin with research for USMLE | Finding topics and mentors | Networking |

hey guys hello and welcome to my YouTube channel I hope that you have been doing absolutely fine in your respective lives and your preparation for the usml exams is going really great uh it has been long time since I made a video and in this video I'll be talk I'll be talking on a very important topic uh which is research and also I'll be giving you update about my life and my preparation like at which stage of USMLE uh Journey am I in and what is going on in my life so without further any delay

let's start the video so guys uh to be very honest I'll be candid in this video and again you know that my videos are unscripted videos so last time last year this time like in November December I had taken my step one exam and I had got the results and uh I had you know I was in a stage where I had passed the exam and uh you know was doing my internship and uh you know had little bit idea about what is the next step like you know what is the next step in this

journey and you know how would I proceed or stuff like that and at that time there was you know a lot of thing going out going on about you know research yeah that you know usually step one is going to be pass fail and you should focus on research and to be very honest to be very Frank I had no idea you know regarding what research is if you have watched my previous video uh you know I I said this thing that for me research was something like you know working in a laboratory you know

doing some PCR stuff or doing something like that I was so so naive in that thing that you know I didn't know that research can be done you know sitting on a table just working on your laptop and stuff like that so I know you know there are so many people like me you know like who have not a clear idea about research From usmla perspective but but they want to do the research so in this video I'll be just you know sharing my thoughts as a Layman like back then like one year back which

what were my thoughts and how I you know went through that Journey from you know just having no idea about research and Publishing five articles in a year and submitting two three more I'll give you an idea like you know how should you think about research at you know as an IMG or as someone who is in this usml journey see the problems are same but you know you got you got to search for the solution and believe me when you go and search for the solutions there are solutions and that is what has happened

with me over a period of time so first let's you know let's be very uh very uh very casual about research like what is research okay so research is adding something new to the existing literature so there is existing literature and you should add some you add something new to that existing literature so that is research for example let's assume when the covid-19 came there was a very uh little knowledge about the covid-19 okay and let's say you know there was someone someone like me who was working in a hospital and uh you know he

or she saw a case of Kobe and uh you know that case had anosmia which was a classical finding that we later uh came to know about so let's see you know here she thinks that okay this respiratory illness has something associated with it this is numerological so and here she thinks to decide here she thinks and decides to put that abnormal finding associated with respiratory illness and makes a case report on it so this is what is the case report case report is something where you put some unusual thing and present it to the

world that this is something unusual happening so like we had a patient who had bradycardia just because of carbazepine and I once I went through the literature there were certain case reports that were saying the same thing so I I made that case report and put it into the literature so that I strengthen the existing literature that he has carbon Byzantine is associated with bloody rhythmias another case report which I made was about breast syndrome that is associated with SLE so there were case reports you know that that that said that yeah SLE and press

have an association and you know I strengthened the literature further so this is all about the case report like whatever case report you see something abnormal and you put that thing in the literature so that is what is case report now there are something which are called as reviews so reviews there of two type we you know they are literature review and there are systematic review again I'm not a expert in these things but I'm just talking to you as a as a beginner like what you should think as a beginner about the research so

the literature reviews are something like let's say you you you know you think about a topic let's say you know we did a literature if you want infective endocarditis and what are the current updates and what are the challenges with infective endocarditis and you know we we search the whole literature let's say from 2000 to till 2022 and we will search the whole literature like uh you know what is the diagnostic modality used for infective and overnight is now 100 treatment option now so we Club the information that has been present in a scattered Manner

and we compile it in a very recent Manner and present it that is a literature review similarly there is something which is called as systematic review systematic review is little bit technical like you know in that you you have all the Articles which were published regarding your subject let's say you know uh you are you are talking about something and you use you search for all the existing articles then you Club those articles then you create your own inclusion criteria okay like what what should be included in my study am I talking about children am

I talking about adults am I talking about older individuals so you include those article which include you know your criteria so that is inclusion so once you have done the inclusion then you you know talk about the research results and all that stuff and finally compile it in a decent manner so that is what is the systematic review no this was the case report these were the literature review this was a systematic review so so this is the general idea about excuse me about what is a case report what is a systematic review what is

a literature review now the next question that you would ask me is a SPD like how do we start here like how do we go with this research so I will tell you my story how I went with research okay so you know like uh once I gave my step an exam so you know I was pretty free and uh you know I used to go to a professor or faculty you know for asking about you know just tell me I want to do a research and they were like what sort of research you want

to do so that was the question and simply I didn't know what is research for example if I told tell you like there is case report there is systematic review there is literature review this is our period of time that I have learned them but at the beginning I didn't have the idea what is case report what is literature review really systematic review so I had no idea like what to answer them so my advice for you will be just just just know one thing that it exists and that is case report okay because you

are a beginner you should not jump into systematic reviews or narrative reviews or something like that you know like just just think about case report okay ask someone that you want to write a case report okay now I would tell you how to think about the case report you know you have to think about atypical things or you have to think about less common things for example if you are going to an award and you see a case of gastroenteritis that would not qualify as a case report because gastroenteritis is so common there is so

much of literature uh about gastroenteritis but uh let's say you know you are going in the world and you see something atypical you know for example let's say you saw a case of mucine mycosis okay it is it is not that common because you know there are specific Association like you see mucine mycosis in diabetes you see uh you know mucine mycosis in steroid use or something like that for example uh you know I'll tell you one case report we saw a hydrated cystic in the lung you know hydrated cyst is in the liver but

seeing hydrated cyst in the lung without Primary in the liver is little bit difficult or I would say it is uncommon so these things they qualify as case report so once you identify your case report the next thing is how to write the case report no I would not make a whole video about how to write the case report because once I write 10 to 15 case reports only then I would have you know a decent idea like you know what are the major points now I'm also in the learning stage but I will tell

you what I did you know there is a researcher called as monkey Assad on YouTube so I went through his video regarding how to write the case report and just by going through those templates I wrote a you know a you know a blueprint of my case report and it was rejected on the first cover but I'll tell you how I approach the things and how I tried so you can watch those videos and you can you know try to put the information in your own template like there is a abstract there is an introduction

there is case presentation there is discussion there is conclusion so try to make a one and then go to some fertility or some resident or some you know senior resident and show them that we have written this thing then they will correct it like oh this is not good you know do this thing add this thing and this thing and finally you get something and you have something to show to senior faculty member that I have written this case report and you know after that you submit to the journal or to the you know editor

or something like that that is a different story but this is you know I'm just giving you a cross idea like you know how you should approach research uh in the medical school or after graduation or something like that as a beginner no uh two three more points I am I I know that this video is going long but two three more points that I want to add over here uh mentors are really really important because they will tell you about the research when doors will give you the opportunities so the idea is where to

find them indoors no today make a link in account okay LinkedIn is very very important I didn't know LinkedIn till like like six months ago six months ago I made a account on LinkedIn and uh believe me after that I have connected with so so many people like you know someone has published an article someone has published 15 articles you can easily ask them like oh please we we want to you know write something do guide us or something like that if they have something some place on board they will uh you know just say

okay come on we are doing a project and you can be a part of that or something like that so so LinkedIn is a very important thing even Instagram you can find people Twitter you can find people and this is how I found people over a period of you know one and a half year so approach people I you know the worst thing is that you know they will say no you know not more than that okay uh and last but not the least an update on my journey uh you know I pass a step

one exam I passed away tea I have written some Publications now I'm preparing for my step two CK also I'm doing a job simultaneously because you know I have to finance the journey as well so I cannot stay at home and just study and also you know like I I wanted to do a job because you know there is a gap between the books and the real patient and I have to fill that Gap so I am doing a job and I plan to take my CK in early next year maybe around March or April

so I'll resign the job in like February or something like that and we'll see how it goes so thank you so much for watching this video I hope that you like the content which I am making for more videos like this do subscribe to my YouTube channel and thank you for being there always