TRAINING and EDUCATION
How I Teach
In this edition of How I Teach, Jennifer Kesselheim, MD, MEd, MBE,
shares how she teaches young researchers to define successful
research questions. Dr. Kesselheim is associate fellowship program
director for education and senior physician at Dana-Farber Cancer
Institute, as well as assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard
Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Kesselheim also is
co-director of the ASH Medical Educators Institute.
RESEARCH BY DESIGN
With Jennifer Kesselheim, MD, MEd, MBE
Educating young scientists to de-
sign successful research projects
often comes down to teaching
them the right questions to ask.
A high-quality educational re-
search project begins with a well-
articulated study question. The
ideal research question should
check the following boxes:
Is it new? The answer to your research question should
provide new information. Focus on novelty, rather than
recapitulating work that already has been done.
Is it important? Ask yourself whether your colleagues will
find the answer to your research question interesting. If
they won’t find it meaningful or if the answers won’t affect
their practice, it’s not important enough to pursue.
Is it feasible? A question can be new and important, but if
it can’t provide any answers, it’s pointless. Feasibility is es-
sential, and the resources for answering the question need
to be considered upfront. Do you have the funding? Will
it take too much time? Do you have access to the appropri-
ate number of participants to create meaningful results?
Frequently, the question needs to be modified so that it is
feasible to answer with the available resources.
Does it answer “why?” The best research explains the
“why” of a finding, as opposed to the “who, what, when,
and where” of the results. Often, a researcher will propose
a project that, were it done, would lead people to say,
“Okay, these results are interesting,” but the conversation
stops there. The researcher needs to take those interesting
results and extend the conversation to figure out where
the answers lead – whether to a change in practice or an
even more important research question.
Defining and Refining Goals and Expectations
After completing the first – and most difficult – task of a
research project, the question needs to be turned into a
statement of what will be tested and what outcomes are
expected.
The best hypotheses are detailed, accounting for po-
tential developments and different facets of the research
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question as the research pro