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Research

The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine’s research value domain is incorporated throughout all four years of the medical school curriculum with the goal of developing scientist physicians. To train scientist physicians, the school’s curriculum immerses all students in the language, culture and practice of research.

All students are expected to conduct original, hypothesis-driven research of sufficient scope to span three-and-a-half years. Each student is allotted $1000/year in Years 2-4 for research supplies.

The school dedicates more than 1,200 hours of its curriculum to research

Medical Student in his lab
M4 medical student, Tom Lui, in the lab. In 2019, Tom received an American Heart Association Student Scholarship in Cerebrovascular Disease.

Year 1

Classroom-based course (biomedical research fundamentals, biostatistics, epidemiology, ethics)

Identify research mentor and project

Project proposal

3 weeks of fulltime research

Year 2

Minimum of 4.5 hours per week during each 6-week block

4 special studies weeks available after each exam week (assuming no remediation)

At least 8 weeks of full-time research during spring



Year 3

4 weeks of full-time research at some point during the academic years

Elective research time available

Year 4

2 weeks of full-time research at some point during the academic year

Medical Student Research Requirements

  • Research proposal (oral and written) during spring of Year 1
  • Research reports due at end of each Year 2 block
  • Oral presentation during spring of Year 2
  • Research rotation reports at end of Year 3 and Year 4 rotations
  • Draft manuscript due in June of Year 3
  • Final oral presentation in June of Year 3
  • Submission of research abstract to a conference/meeting (travel funds available)
  • Final manuscript due in February of Year 4
  • Poster presentation at VTCSOM Student Research Symposium (spring of Year 4)

Medical Student Research Success

113

Publications with VTCSOM medical students

390+

Presentations at regional, national, and international meetings

*From 2014-21, based on eight graduating classes with a total of 318 graduates.

Learn more about Research at Virginia Tech School of Medicine

Spotlight on Research at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine

Research Domain on Social Media