Research and Internal Medicine

[Guest HSR07]

So lately I've been becoming more and more certain that I will want to do internal medicine in residency (I just finished my second year of meds), but now I'm worrying that I won't have any publications or research experience in the field which might really hurt me if I want to match to UofT or Ottawa or another similar bigger center. I don't really like research, and I see myself eventually becoming a rural physician not an academic one, so if I explain this in interviews will the fact that I haven't done any research be less of an issue? Or should I just get involved in some now just to be safe?

[Guest studentz]

Call the program directors. I asked the people at UofT this (when I wanted to know if I would be at a disadvantage applyting to Toronto's IM program if I went to UWO-the answer was "no", by the way). The person at Toronto said that while research certainly will help, and Toronto is an academic centre, every year they take people without research experience who are intending on having a community or purely clinical practice. Call just to be certain though. You may want to get involved with something (maybe clinical instead of basic science) just so you know for sure whether you do or don't want to do it later.