Students interested in dermatology often ask how to get
involved with research. Dr. Tyring’s clinical research fellow has given us some
recommendations on ways students can find dermatology research opportunities:
- Many faculty members have research opportunities for medical students but it must be sought out. A better approach may be meeting dermatology faculty at interest meetings, rotations, and inquiring in person or by email.
- On 3rd/4th year medicine or ICU rotations patients will present with interesting dermatological complaints that can be written up as case reports. Express interest to your attending/resident that you would like to write your patient up.
- Enroll in research elective during 4th year (details in previous DIG@UTMB blog post)
- While generally reserved for residents, medical students can present patients at conferences (ie. Texas Dermatological Society meetings) if there is space and time available.
- Some students applying to dermatology will elect to take a year off for research to make their application more competitive. Before considering this, talk to a mentor who can give you a realistic idea if you will match into dermatology given your current stats or if taking a year to conduct research would be beneficial.
- Dr. Tyring is happy to have students rotate with him for a month to work in both his private clinic and do research.
- His email address is styring@ccstexas.com. Just this year they had one UTMB medical student write and publish a paper in a major dermatology journal. It was accepted, too! Another student rotating for a month wrote a paper that was also recently accepted, helped input data for a project that residents were already working on, and presented a poster at the Texas Dermatological Society meeting.
- Students can also contact Dr. Tyring’s clinical research fellow at cdowning@ccstexas.com to inquire about any projects.
DIG would like to thank Dr. Tyring’s research clinical fellow
for providing all of this helpful information!