Welcome to Pritzker Summer Research Program

1. Welcome to Pritzker Summer Research Program University of Chicago

3. External Funding!

4. Objective #1: Conduct research • Prepare you to conduct mentored- research projects • Mentor • Mentor’s staff and faculty collaborators • Cluster group leaders • Peers • Offer input on progress • Sounding board

5. Objective #2: Consider research career • Learn what medical research career are like • Collaborative • Working on research teams • Deadline–driven • SRP deadlines on website • Creative but Unpredictable • Your hypothesis may change based on findings Flexibility • Work at your own pace • Offsets medical practice

6. Role of the Mentor • Critical piece of the SRP program • Goal is to have productive working relationship • Find out the best way to interact with your mentor and the mentor’s team • Facilitate the research you are doing • Responsible for specific “needs” related to you project (i.e. specific software, materials, etc.) • Sometimes hard to understand how it all fits together til the end…

7. Common Issues in SRP • Mentor NOT available • Very common for “clinicians • Plan ahead • Find out who the other resources in the ‘lab’ are • Make it easy for them • phone, email, meet them in clinic/OR etc.

8. Cluster Groups • Student Liaisons Student liaisons communicate with faculty and students to arrange meeting times and take attendance at each meeting (Who is your Student Leader?) • Faculty Leaders Faculty leaders support and guide your progress through SRP (assignments, troubleshooting, etc.)

9. Cluster Group Names • Groups named by dominant themes, leader expertise & NIH Mission • Due to project variety, some project assignments based on methods or expertise of leader but NOT reflected in title • Example: Hospital Care/Aging • Many projects related to hospital care • Several (not all) funded by NIA T35 • could also include quality of care projects • Attend first group before asking to switch

10. EPIC Access • All rising MS2 students should continue to have EPIC access • If you don’t log in to EPIC regularly, your account may be soft-deleted (so…log in) Trouble logging in? Korry Schwanz kschwanz1@bsd.uchicago.edu Kate Blythe kblythe@bsd.uchicago.edu

11. Objective #3: The Paper • Provide a framework for scientific writing • Introduction • Methods • Results • Discussion Caution: There may be seasoned writers & researchers in the room

12. IMRaD • Unlike a novel, newspaper article or an essay…a scientific paper has a required structure and style • By international consensus "Introduction Methods Results and Discussion" or IMRaD Hengl, T. and Gould, M., 2002. Rules of thumb for writing research articles.

13. Introduction • Opening line • Start broad with something that interests your audience “the hook” • But not too broad • “Sleep is a required biological function” • Could frame it as a problem with scope • “Sleep deprivation is a common problem worldwide”

14. Introduction • Routinely 2 to 3 paragraphs • Think about the 3 main items that someone needs to know to understand your aim • Create topic sentences for each paragraph carefully that introduce the next idea • Need good ‘flow’ • Transition words and phrases between ideas

15. Similar idea In addition Furthermore Moreover also Likewise Similarly As a result For example Opposite idea However Nevertheless In contrast Regardless Transitions Words Monitor frequency of use to avoid overusing same word to start sentences

16. WHAT IS NOVEL????Create tension or ‘gap’ • Given that other studies have taken place, why is your study needed • Highlight potential links to therapy, policy, scientific discovery “To date, no study has explored…” “Currently, it is unclear..”

17. Pitfalls of Introduction • Too long • Reference rehash or overload • Not making the case for the study – WHY? • Jargon or abbreviations not explained • Too broad • Poor flow

18. Strategic References • Avoid “reference rehash” • “Chang et al showed X. Towle et al demonstrated Y. Boone et al demonstrated Z.” • OK to do this for 1-2 landmark studies • Goal is to synthesize prior work • “Prior studies have showed…” • “Some studies showed that X…. In contrast, other studies showed Z.”

19. Aim and Hypothesis • End of the introduction • The specific aim of this paper is to… • We hypothesize that… • What is a hypothesis?

20. Characteristics of a good hypothesis

21. Good Hypothesis? • Medical students with a good summer research experience will enter different careers than those who have a bad summer research experience

22. Better Hypothesis? • Pritzker medical students who report high satisfaction with the Summer Research Program will be MORE LIKELY to pursue research careers than those Pritzker students who report low satisfaction with the Summer Research Program

23. Even Better Hypothesis? • Pritzker medical students who are report high satisfaction with the Summer Research Program will be TWICE AS LIKELY to pursue research careers than those Pritzker students who report low satisfaction with the Summer Research Program

24. Methods • Step by step detailed protocol • In general, 3 main paragraphs • Study Design • Data Collection • Data Analysis

25. Study Design…including Setting & Population • Design • Retrospective or prospective? • RCT, pre-post, observational? • Setting: Where conducted? • Multicenter, single institution, in a lab, in the community. • Population: Who or what was studied? • People, cell lines, etc. • In enough detail so reader can assess generalizability • Often end with IRB/IACUC approval or exemption statement

26. Data Collection • Step by step, how was data collected • May use sub-sub headings if many types of methods • Give examples • how a survey question was worded & scale used • Describe any products/instruments used (inc manufacturer) and units reported • Reference studies that use these methods or validate these methods • Past tense • since it was done- not copied from IRB app or grant!

27. Data Analysis • Calculations used to arrive at the results • Data were analyzed using.. . • Specific tests • Qualitative or Quantitative • Any software or product used • How statistical or clinical significance was defined • Multiple comparisons may necessitate more conservative p values

28. Pitfalls of Methods • No data analysis section due to a fear of statistics • Too short • Not enough detail to understand study • Assuming that others know what your method is • No mention of IRB/IACUC • No methods references

29. Results • Remember to start with the basics • “Descriptive statistics” - basic # to demonstrate • Describe study sample characteristics • Often referring to “Table 1” • Examples • # of experiments you’ve done • # of people you have enrolled (response rate)

30. Results • Consider the “flow” – give most important results first or “set up” the important ones • Important results relate to your hypothesis • Followed by “secondary” results that are less important but interesting or characterize a finding further • Consider flow with your mentor • Likely will continue to work on results rest of summer (Upload a placeholder)

31. Project not working? • It is OK if… • Hypothesis is disproven • p value is >0.05 • enrollment is low • results are slow • If a project is NOT working… • Meet with mentor to troubleshoot • IRB issues? Methodological problem? • Change direction?

32. Need Statistical Help • Use your mentor and resources of your mentor’s lab, Dept, colleagues etc. • May have a statistician for the project • Or someone they curbside for stats questions • Revisit notes from class • If your mentor needs help… • biostatistics assistance available to faculty (and their students) • Save for when you need it –at critical point • Costs $$$ after 2h of use (to your mentor) • http://biotime.uchicago.edu/

34. Initial Approaches to Data Analysis • Describe the variables • Height /weight ? • Likert type data ? (Strongly agree to strongly disagree) • Gender? • Race? / Specialty you will go into? • This is the KEY to decide what statistical test to use

35. STATA ? • Would you attend an intro stata session? • If so, please sign up! • Disclosures: • I teach it • I am not a statistician • But I am decent with basic commands and regression

36. Figures/ Graphs / Tables • Show the data the best you can • Tables and Graphs should be “stand alone” • That is they should convey the meaning of the data without HAVING to read the paper • Often this will require a legend • Be very careful with abbr. - explain in legend

37. How Most People Read Journals • Read Title • Read Intro (first few lines) to decide to read further • Look at figures/ tables to see if they can get the gist of your work • Read conclusion But, reviewers do not read this way! Neither do those “looking for your article”

38. Logistics • Note down presentation date/time on website • Invite mentor, family & friends • Payment –roughly $5000!! • Made in 2 installments • mid & end of summer • Requires assignments completed Check #1 available July 1st Requires validation of IRB/IACUC References Hypothesis Introduction • Research Seminar #3 July 22nd • - Presentation Info & Authorship

39. Uploading Assignments • http://srp.uchicago.edu

40. What are the hours? • Expectation is full-time • Natural ebb & flow • May feel like its easy now… • “Crunch time” as final paper & presentation nears • Plan ahead

41. Free time? • Take initiative • Talk to your mentor about a related project • Troubleshoot difficulty • Work ahead to prevent crunch time • Paper • Power point (July lecture)

42. Special Emphasis Programs • START (Scholars in Translational Aging Research Training) • Sign up sheet • SOAR (Scholars in Oncology Associated Research) • Includes interprofessional component

43. START Program • Scholars in Translational Aging Research Training Program • sponsored by the National Institutes on Aging • Hear about different research & clinical topics related to aging • Monday mornings • Sign up sheet GOING around OR email kblythe@bsd.uchicago.edu

44. Tips to Surviving SRP • Focus on the process and making sure you are on top of your assignments • Results should come eventually and sometimes no way to ‘force’ them • Figure out how to troubleshoot & consider plans B & C • Sometimes you have to change your hypothesis to accommodate this change too

45. Tips to Surviving SRP • Cultivate a working relationship & rhythm with your mentor and mentor’s lab • Proactively communicate but respect their competing obligations that prevent you from being their top priority at every moment • Graduating students will tell us that finding a good mentor is the key to a successful experience (not the “project”)

46. Tips to Surviving SRP • The timeline to produce anything meaningful is LONG • People spend their whole lives on making one breakthrough • You have 10 weeks • This is in some ways a ‘jumpstart’ to learning about research and your interests

47. Tips to Surviving SRP • Do not focus on “publishing” a paper • Will just annoy your mentor • Want to see you genuinely interested in work • Think about more appropriate dissemination for a first step • SRP Forum counts! • Internal conferences “Dept of Surgery Research Day” • Regional or national conference • The first step is submitting an abstract

48. Authorship workshop • Led by Dr. Wolfson • Part of REQUIRED research ethics curriculum • Effective Scientific Presentations July 22nd - 10:00am • What you need to know to present at SRP Forum • Writing an abstract

49. SRP Questions • That your mentor or cluster group leader can’t answer… • AND are not on FAQs • Email Kate Blythe/Candi Gard for ALL LOGISTIC questions (Epic, stata, lecture recording etc.) • Use S&D EMAIL for mentor /project issues

50. Thank you… …and have a great summer!!