Medical Students Can
Now Develop Expertise
Early in their Training
Monica Ann Shaw, MD, FACP (pictured below)
Karen Hughes Miller, PhD
A
lthough first and second year medical
students may seem very young to many
faculty members, the reality is that
these are young professionals who often have a
very clear idea of where their special interests lie.
The University of Louisville School of Medicine
Distinction Tracks Program was developed to
provide students with opportunities to focus on
areas in medicine for which they have a passion, and to increase the
number of students choosing a career in academic medicine. The
four Distinction Tracks offer medical students with special interests
the opportunity to pursue them with expert guidance.
The Distinction in Research (DIR) Track is the oldest track and
was started in 2010 by Ruth Greenberg, PhD, and Allan Tasman,
MD, and is currently directed by Dale Schuschke, PhD, and Russ
Prough, PhD. It provides medical students with meaningful and
productive research experiences that enrich their medical school
training. The experience is longitudinal (years 2-4) and includes
contact with mentors and research groups, development of researchoriented skills, and the completion of a Scholarship in Research
Project in the 3rd/4th years. Projects may be a paper submitted for
publication, oral or poster presentation at a regional or national
meeting, or serving as a reviewer for a manuscript. One student’s
project was “Challenges in Implementing a Pediatric Cardiovascular
Home Telehealth Project,” and it was presented as a poster at the
World Congress of Pediatric Cardiology & Cardiac Surgery in Cape
Town, South Africa in 2013.
Initially, medical students are given the opportunity to participate
in a ten-week mentored Summer Research Scholar Program (SRSP)
between the first and second years of medical school. Following that
experience, the DIR track invites interested students to apply for the
distinction track in August of their second year. Selection for the
track is based primarily on student interest and performance during
the SRSP experience. All research projects are presented at the annual Research!Louisville seminar (scheduled for Sept. 16-19, 2014).
The Distinction in Medical Education (DIME) Track, directed
by Jennifer Brueckner-Collins, PhD, Pradip Patel, MD, and Charles
Kodner, MD