Penn has developed one of the most robust and active plastic surgery clinical research programs in the country under the established guidance of our attending physicians:
Clinical Research Fellowship
The Clinical Research Fellowship in the Division of Plastic Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania is a 12-month funded fellowship dedicated to patient related research. There have been 23 research fellows since the inception of the position in 2008. Research fellows are either senior medical students or general surgery residents. The research fellowship is an outstanding opportunity for those applying into plastic surgery, and a great help to the clinical research endeavors within the research group.
Position Description
The Clinical Research Fellows’ broad responsibilities include organizing and gaining approval for the majority of the research that is produced within the division. This includes developing project ideas, grant proposals, and IRB protocols, if necessary. It also includes the prospective and retrospective management and statistical analysis of several large databases, including one of the largest and most detailed autologous breast reconstruction databases in the field.
Although no formal bio-statistical or clinical research training is funded through the fellowship, the Clinical Research Fellows gain a tremendous amount of on-the-job training from residents and previous fellows who are accomplished academic researchers in plastic surgery. The fast-paced environment and abundance of practical training leaves Clinical Research Fellows with a robust knowledge of the current state of academic literature in their areas of interest within plastic surgery, as well as an ability to effectively explore this literature, develop new ideas, and gather, manage, and analyze institution and national datasets to answer novel hypotheses.
At the end of the year, a Clinical Research Fellow is expected to be involved in the completion of 20+ clinical research ideas and submit them for publication, many to high-impact plastic and general surgery journals. At any one given time, a Clinical Research Fellow may be responsible for directly overseeing 5-10 projects, some of which he or she will complete during their tenure and others of which he or she will pass on to the next fellow(s). In this manner, the fellows learn to create reproducible and scientifically valid data in a collaborative environment, thereby setting the foundation for many of the skills they will need throughout their academic careers.
Applying
To apply for fellowship please complete application.
Applications will be accepted until November 1, 2024.