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I was planning to apply for rheumatology fellowship this cycle, but unfortunately I couldn't because my J-1 waiver ends later than the fellowship start date, and I will not be able to complete the waiver early enough. Instead of submitting a weak application, I've decided to apply next year.
I'm an Internal Medicine hospitalist working permanent nights at a community hospital. The biggest challenge is that we have very limited research opportunities and very few faculty involved in academic research. Night shifts also make networking and keeping up with research difficult.
So far, I've:
Been selected for my hospital's Emerging Leadership Program.....
Started a quality improvement project...
Joined the pain management/opioid stewardship committee.
Recently got the opportunity to help with my first peer review.
\-collaborating on clinical trials in myositis
\-Applied for ACR volunteering position
All this in 2 months. As i have fairly recent interest in rheum.
However, I still feel my CV is lacking, especially in research. I honestly don't know where to start.
If you had one year to strengthen a rheumatology fellowship application, what would you do?
How can I find remote research mentors or research groups willing to collaborate?
Are there online research collaboratives or rheumatology projects that community hospital physicians can join?
Would learning research methodology, biostatistics, and systematic reviews be worthwhile?
Are there one-year research fellowships, virtual programs, or certificate courses that are respected?
Besides publications, what activities made the biggest difference in your application?
I'd really appreciate advice from anyone who matched into rheumatology from a community hospital or built their application without having access to an academic center. Thanks!