Seven Reasons to Do Research

What’s yours?

There are 7 reasons for students, residents, fellows, and faculty to do research. Let me list them; then let’s discuss them

1. To learn about the world

2. To improve the lives of patients

3. To get promoted

4. To make money from patents/spin offs

5. Habit/inertia

6. To kill time

7. Masochism

Let’s consider them in turn

1. There are still a few people each year who participate in science for the sake of science. To learn about the universe and how the body works. Godspeed to all those this applies to. I salute you.

2. There are still many physicians and researchers who believe that their work will improve outcomes for patients and public policy. This was and remains the reason behind most of my papers — which are largely about health policy.

3. In order to jump to the next rung of the ladder, you’ve gotta do some research. This is a terrible rule, but it is real. Every time you look at someone’s CV (for evaluating trainees) and say that’s impressive, you’re contributing to the problem. I would much rather we reward people for being good doctors. When evaluating CVs — its quality over quantity. Read the underlying papers and quiz the trainee. The person who really understands and justifies what they did is the winner

4. Modern universities are patent trolls. The amount of money they pour into faculty who can generate lucrative patents/products/spin-offs is astonishing. They want a piece of every startup, and many academics are eager to make a dozen or more. Researchers start out wanting to so good and help people but along the way become disillusioned and see the patent as the destination. Then they care mostly about the exit and not about helping people. You can have a great financial exit for a failed product. Being acquired is the goal.

5. People who work at universities for a long time, who mostly see patients, occasionally do some side projects. If they’re perfectly honest, a lot of this is just habit and inertia. These projects don’t help anybody and produce no meaningful data. They probably don’t wanna do them anyway. Break the habit.

6. If you do a seven-year general surgery residency, you have to kill time in years four and five. Enter research. Same is true for most fellowships. Why don’t they let you graduate early instead? They need you for the call pool. You are cheap labor. PS we just launched a new lymphoma fellowship. ;)

7. There are still some people who are doing research just to torture themselves and not for love of the game or any external benefit. If they are perfectly honest, they are not even chasing knowledge. They like the grind. If this is you, there are other ways to suffer. Consider becoming a primary care physician in a large hospital system with many quality metrics.

I’ve ordered this list from good reasons to do research to bad reasons to do research, but only you know the reason why you’re doing it. Just be honest with yourself.

Importantly, even research done for the right reason may not be true or useful. On Sensible Medicine we evaluate the product and not the motive.