TJU Student Research Resources

Research Programs Open to Jefferson Medical College Students

Students can learn about the different research endeavors that take place in each of the academic and clinical departments at Thomas Jefferson University by contacting the departments' research directors or departmental administrators. Advice is available to identify & contact Jefferson researchers.

JMC students interested in pursuing research and faculty members who have a research opportunity for medical students may contact Aveniel de Lorenzo, Science Outreach Coordinator/Office of Faculty Affairs (215-503-8990 or Aveniel.Delorenzo@jefferson.edu).

All students are invited to participate in Sigma Xi Research Day.

Summer Research Programs at Jefferson Medical College

The following formal research opportunities are open to all Jefferson medical students who successfully complete the first year of medical school. Each program offers a paid 6- to 10-week research experience with clinical or basic science faculty actively engaged in research at Jefferson Medical College.

To apply to these programs, please complete the Summer Research Program for Medical Students Application Form and, unless otherwise noted, the Transcript Release Form.

 

Computer-Assisted Education Development

Principal Investigator: Tony Frisby, PhD
Funding Source: Office of the Dean, JMC
The Summer Computer Fellowship Program provides an opportunity for first-year JMC students to work closely with faculty in order to develop, or evaluate the use of, instructional technology for the medical college curriculum. The 10-week fellowship program has produced a wide range of computer-based learning programs and quiz preparation software. Students and faculty work with the Education Services division of Academic & Instructional Support & Resources (AISR), which provides instructional design help as well as support for learning the programming language appropriate for the project and for developing any graphics, animation, video or sound that will become part of the program. Transcript Required.
Contact for more information: Aveniel de Lorenzo, MS, Science Outreach Coordinator/ Office of Faculty Affairs (Aveniel.deLorenzo@jefferson.edu or 215-503-8990).
Take a look at some recent projects (2003, 2004 or 2005) to get an idea of the possibilities.

Emergency Medicine Summer Research Program

An 8-week program in which the student serves as a research assistant for the Department of Emergency Medicine. The student will assist in patient enrollment and data collection into ongoing clinical emergency medicine research. The participant will also have the opportunity to follow and observe Emergency Medicine physicians as they provide patient care. Transcript not required. Students with work-study status will be given priority in the selection process
Contact for more information: Linda Davis-Moon, MSN, CRNP, Research Coordinator for Emergency Medicine (Linda.Davis-Moon@jefferson.edu, 215-955-6844).

Family Medicine Summer Research Program

A 9-week program for TJU medical students who have successfully completed their freshman year. Transcript not required.
Contact for more information:  Carolyn Little (Carolyn.Little@jefferson.edu, 215-955-2362).

Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research’s (FAER) Medical Student Anesthesia Research Fellowship (MSARF) Program

Provides support to both medical students and host departments for 8 to 12 weeks of anesthesia-related research experience and is an element of FAER's commitment to attract scientific talent to academic anesthesiology. FAER hopes that an exposure to the specialty early in the career of medical students will encourage future pursuit of research in anesthesiology and perioperative medicine.
Deadline for application: January 26, 2007.
2007 Host departments and project listing (PDF)
Download Application (Word format)

 

General Medical Sciences Research

Principal Investigator: Committee on Research
Funding Source: Office of the Dean, JMC
Ten-week research projects in diverse areas such as health policy, dermatology, orthopedics, neurosciences, embryology, and radiation oncology are available to 5 medical students. Transcript Required.
Contact for more information: Aveniel de Lorenzo, MS, Science Outreach Coordinator/ Office of Faculty Affairs (Aveniel.deLorenzo@jefferson.edu or 215-503-8990).

National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Research

Principal Investigator: Jeffrey Benovic, PhD
Funding Source: NHLBI
Six to eight 10-week positions are available for research, including both basic science and clinical research related to pulmonary, cardiovascular, and hematologic medicine. Transcript Required.
Contact for more information: Aveniel de Lorenzo, MS, Science Outreach Coordinator/ Office of Faculty Affairs (Aveniel.deLorenzo@jefferson.edu or 215-503-8990).

Neurology Summer Research Program

This program is available to JMC first-year medical students and provides an excellent opportunity for students to participate in basic science and/or clinical research in laboratories of Department of Neurology faculty. The fellowships run ten weeks during the summer break between the first and second year of medical school. They will be available for work-study as well as non-work-study, and stipends are commensurate with those given in the Dean's student summer research program. Transcript not required.
Contact for more information: Michael Oshinsky, PhD (Michael.Oshinsky@jefferson.edu, 215-955-0433).

Neurosurgical Scholarship Opportunity

Funding Source: TJU Department of Neurosurgery
The Thomas Jefferson University Department of Neurosurgery offers two eight-week scholarships, the William Keene Scholarship and the Jewell Osterholm Scholarship, to encourage medical students interested in pursuing careers in a neurosurgical or spinal-surgical specialty. Students will work with JMC faculty mentors on clinical research projects. The research programs can be tailored to the students' individual interests. Students will also experience clinic and in-patient hospital care settings. Students are expected to either present or publish their research in the neurosurgery community. Support for this is also available.
Contacts for more information: James S Harrop, MD, or Ashwini D. Sharan, MD, at 215-955-7959.

Translational Cancer Research

Principal Investigators: Scott Waldman, MD, PhD, Laurence Eisenlohr, PhD

Funding Source: National Cancer Institute
Ten students have the opportunity to work for 10 weeks with clinical and basic science faculty in cancer-related research including projects with a preclinical and clinical focus. Transcript Required.
Contact for more information: Aveniel de Lorenzo, MS, Science Outreach Coordinator/ Office of Faculty Affairs (Aveniel.deLorenzo@jefferson.edu or 215-503-8990).

Summer Research Programs at Albert Einstein Medical Center

Summer research programs at Albert Einstein Medical Center are available to any student who has successfully completed the first year of medical school. A monetary stipend will be given with the expectation that the student will be at AEMC Monday through Friday and work through the summer. Please contact Carina Sundstrom, residency program administrator (sundstrc@einstein.edu or 215-456-8520) for information about 2008 programs or application instructions.

Examples from prior years:

Cardiology:  Incidence, Predictors, and Outcomes of Gastrointestinal Bleeding in Patients on Dual Antiplatelet Therapy with Aspirin and Plavix

Mentor:  Aman Amanullah, MD
Dual antiplatelet therapy is prescribed to millions of patients worldwide to prevent and treat cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and peripheral arterial disease. Each year about 1.2 million patients in the United States receive dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and plavix after percutaneous coronary intervention with drug eluting stents.  The use of aspirin compared to placebo reduces the risk of myocardial infarction,stroke or death from vascular causes by approximately 25%. Addition of plavix as seen in the Clopidogrel Versus Aspirin in Patients at Risk of Ischemic Events (CAPRIE) trial decreased the relative risk of vascular events by 8.7% compared with aspirin. The addition of plavix to aspirin in patients with acute coronary syndrome reduces the risk of reinfarction, stroke and death by 20%, compared with aspirin alone.

The question thus arises, if we are going to be subjecting over a million people each year to PCI using the drug eluting stents, is there a way to adequately predict patients that are likely to bleed? When they do bleed what is the optimal management strategy? Can we safely stop these medications during acute bleeding episode? And finally how do we prevent or prophylax against episodes of GI bleed in patients on dual antiplatelet therapy?

Cardiology:  Incidence, Characteristics and Prognosis of Non-Ischemic Left Ventricular Dysfunction in Critically Ill Patients

Mentor:  Gregg Pressman, MD
The objectives of this project are to determine the incidence of new left ventricular dysfunction (LVD) unrelated to myocardial ischemia in critically ill patients; to characterize the morphology, severity and reversibility of new non-ischemic LVD in critically ill patients; and to examine the underlying diagnoses, severity of illness, and cardiac biochemical and electrocardiographic profile in patients with new LV dysfunction.  One hundred patients will be enrolled from MICU and SICU admissions.

Cardiology:  One Year Mortality in Patients with Troponin Elevation in Acute Ischemic Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack in the Absence of Overt Ischemic Heart Disease

Mentor:  Aman Amanullah, MD, PhD
The aim of the study is to determine whether patients with acute ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack and an elevated Toponin I level (=to or >0.08 ug/L) have a higher rate of mortality than patients who do not have an elevated level of Troponin I (<0.08 ug/L) in the absence of overt ischemic heart disease.

Infectious Diseases: Colonization by Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) or vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) and Subsequent Infections

Mentor: Jerry Zuckerman, MD.
Research question: Do routine screening cultures for MRSA and VRE on hospitalized patients correlate with bacteria isolated from clinical specimens?  Because of several quality-care initiatives that have made it a priority to reduce the transmission of drug-resistant bacteria in health-care settings, Albert Einstein Medical Center screens patients for MRSA and VRE.  The primary aim of this study would be to explore any association between colonization by these organisms detected via routine screening and current or subsequent cultures done to detect infection.  A secondary aim would be to explore any patient characteristics that predict colonization or infection with VRE or MRSA.

Infectious Diseases:  Endoscopic Diagnosis of Candidal Esophagitis

Mentor: Robert Fischer, MD
Research question: What is the predictive value of the clinical diagnosis of Candidal esophagitis via endoscopy using pathology as the reference standard?  During esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD), gastroenterologists sometimes make a presumptive diagnosis of Candidal esophagitis based on the gross appearance of the esophagus.  This study would examine the relationship between this clinical impression and the final pathology reports from concurrent biopsies.

Infectious Diseases:  Bactrim Prophylaxis and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Resistance Patterns

Mentor: Aaron R Kosmin, MD
Research question:  Does Bactrim prophylaxis in transplant patients or patients with AIDS reduce the likelihood that clinical isolates of MRSA will be susceptible to Bactrim?  Given the rapidly increasing prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) across multiple settings, Bactrim has replaced oral cephalosporins as the empirical drug-of-choice for minor infections thought to be due to Staph.  This study will explore any impact long-term low dose exposure to Bactrim has on the in vitro susceptibility to Bactrim of subsequent clinical isolates.  Antibiograms from Staph isolates obtained from transplant patients and HIV positive inpatients on prophylaxis with Bactrim will be compared to isolates from such patients who are not on such prophylaxis.

Impact of a Clinical Pathway for Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP)

Mentor: Steven L. Sivak, MD; Paul J. Johnson, MD,Chairman, Department of Medicine, Albert Einstein Medical Center
In February 2002, Albert Einstein Medical Center implemented a clinical pathway for CAP. This study will measure its impact on compliance with quality criteria, length of stay and cost of care. The student who participates will collect data via chart review and access of the hospital's electronic patient management database. Statistical analysis of this data before and after implementation will be measured. The student will also be involved in the design of the study, learn about the ideal management of patients with CAP and gain an understanding of systems based practice.

Internal Medicine: Patient Understanding of Medications in a Primary Care Setting

Patients often have difficulty remembering what medicines they are taking. Even more frequently, they do not have an understanding of the indications for their prescribed medication. We propose initiating a telephone- and/or personal interview-based study in which patients are asked about their medications. We will try to identify patient characteristics which may predispose to knowledge deficits. We will use this also as an opportunity to provide patients with educational materials and counselling which may improve their understanding.

Nephrology: Predictive Value of Slow-Flow Pressure Measurements on Future AV Access Thrombosis in Patients with ESRD

The investigator will note pressure measurements while the patient is on the dialysis machine. The goal is to determine whether elevated pressures are an early predictor of AV Graft Thrombosis or whether these pressures can predict the presence of moderate to severe stenosis before the graft clots.

Retrospective Study of Hospitalized Patients with Venous Thromboembolism

The purpose is to identify potentially preventable cases of venous thromboembolism that should have received appropriate prophylactic measures. Data collection through chart reviews will quantify and characterize the factors contributing to inappropriate prophylactic measures. Identifying and analyzing the missed opportunities for appropriate prophylaxis may then lead to systems to avoid such omissions.

Travel Funds

Student Organization Conference Fund

The JMC Student Council supports a limited amount of transportation and/or registration expenses for an otherwise not attendable conference. Up to one request per year may be made by any official JMC student organization.

Medical Student Research Travel Fellowships

A limited amount of funding is available to support medical students who present their research at national or international scientific meetings.

One-half of travel expenses or $400 (whichever is less) is available to up to ten students who meet the following criteria:

1. the student must be first author on the abstract and must present the research findings (either poster or oral presentation) at the meeting; and
   
   
2. the faculty or departmental sponsor must sign the application and indicate the source of matching funds
   
   

Any medical student who has done research while at Jefferson is eligible. However, preference will be given to students who have participated in one of the summer research programs administered through the Office of Faculty Affairs. For more information or an application contact Aveniel de Lorenzo at 215-503-8990 or Aveniel.Delorenzo@jefferson.edu.