Research Requirement Guidelines

Overview

The CWRU Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences recognizes the need to expose residents to the research process to foster their development as critical thinkers and as cutting- edge clinicians and surgeons. Other factors to develop a formal commitment to research for each resident in the program include:

• Meet RRC competency requirement
• Enhance competitive position for fellowships
• Take advantage of faculty growth and research infrastructure for both clinical, translational, and basic vision research

Beginning July 1, 2008, the CWRU Affiliated Hospitals Residency Program in Ophthalmology will require that all residents participate in a basic, translational or clinical research project on an annual basis. The results of that project will be presented in the spring at the annual Resident Research Day conference, and all residents will submit abstracts of their projects for publication in the Research Day Abstract Manual. Paper publication in a peer-reviewed academic journal will be encouraged when appropriate.

Getting Started

Each resident will choose a faculty mentor from a consortium of active clinical and basic science researchers. For information about the latest clinical and basic science research and involved faculty, residents are encouraged to visit the websites of the Visual Research Coordinating Center (VRCC) and the Visual Sciences Research Center (VSRC) at case.edu/med/vsrc/ and the Community of Science website at cos.com. The resident may also consult Dr. Lass, Dr. Huang, and Dr. Pearlman for advice on a project. The project may be conducted with either a full-time or part-time faculty member at CWRU.

The scope of the requirement is intended to be broad, based on the resident’s interest and time available for research activity. Residents may pursue bench, translational, or clinical research. Basic research projects may require approval by the animal committee of CWRU SOM and certification of the resident for animal research. Clinical interventions and chart reviews are likely to require additional time for IRB approval and should be planned accordingly and the resident will require CREC certification to conduct human research.

The Education Committee, consisting of the Department Chairman, Program Director, Program Coordinator, Medical Student Education Director, a Basic Science faculty member, a Clinical Faculty member, and the Chief Administrative Resident, will monitor resident research progress by reviewing letters of collaboration and progress reports.

Timeline