Introduction

Although our primary focus is to teach each resident the necessary skills to understand research methods and to critically evaluate the scientific literature, we also provide opportunity for residents to participate in laboratory and clinical research projects in a variety of areas including cardiac resuscitation, pain management, airway management, anxiety disorders, headache, radiograph interpretation, administration, and aeromedical transport. Resident participation in research has resulted in several publications and presentations at the annual Emergency Medicine scientific meetings, including the 5th and 12th Annual Ohio/Midwest Regional Emergency Medicine Research Symposium which was hosted by our program.

Research Statistics
2003-2004 Academic Year
     • 49 Published Articles
     • 16 Published Articles were Resident Co-Authored
     • 97 Presentations by Residents and Faculty at Regional or National Meetings

The fundamentals of research methodology are provided in a series of didactic lectures by Dr. Michael Plewa. These concepts are emphasized with examples during our monthly journal club meetings. In addition, residents participate in a research workshop rotation involving computer-assisted literature searching, composition of a research proposal and consent form, an open-book examination on statistical methods, and critique of a poster and mock manuscript. The goals of this rotation are to understand basic statistical methods, study design, ethical issues such as consent, animal use, fraud and authorship, and develop the necessary computer skills for word processing, slide-making, and searching the literature.

To fulfill the research requirement, each resident should:
     • attend and participate in monthly journal club discussions.
     • attend and participate in the grand rounds lecture series on Emergency Medicine
        Research Methodology.
     • participate in at least one academic research project from the following categories:
               1.  case report with literature review (requirement is a literature search,
                    case presentation, and outline).
               2.  topic review.
               3.  retrospective clinical investigation.
               4.  laboratory or animal study.
               5.  chapter author.
               6.  computer model (requirement is a synopsis).
               7.  other as approved by research committee.