Department of
Medicine

Research

The WVU Internal Medicine Residency Program recognizes that research and scholarship are critical for our residents’ education and future career development.  The program supports and encourages scholarly pursuits through a dedicated curriculum, travel funding, a research track, elective research time, a resident research interest group, and a research support team.

Our Vice Chair for Research, Dr. Christopher McCartney, oversees the research mission in the department and works to ensure that residents have an ever-increasing number of mentors and resources available to support their research. The Internal Medicine Residency Program Research team, led by Laura Davisson, MD, MPH, Jesse Thompson, PhD, and Jayne Harris-Esposito, MPH, BA, facilitates collaboration between residents, fellows, and faculty across the entire Department of Medicine, ensuring that residents can do research with a mentor in their area of interest during their training.

Research Resources

Curriculum – All residents get experience developing a quality improvement project, and all are exposed to the basics of research question development, literature searches, critical assessment of research papers, project proposals, abstract writing, and effective poster design/presentation.

Residents Research Academy (RRA) – The RRA is a structured professional development program sponsored by the West Virginia Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute (WVCTSI) and hosted by the Departments of Medicine and Family Medicine. Led by experienced researchers, twice-monthly session topics include: research question development and hypothesis framing; appropriate study design options (including retrospective/prospective observational studies and randomized clinical trials); elements of project planning; research ethics and data protection; appropriate data analysis; writing for publication and other forms of research communication/dissemination; establishing mentorship and being an effective mentee; and AI use in research.  

Elective Research Time – Residents may procure two months of protected time away from clinical rotations to complete a research project. Residents in the Research Track (see below) may take three months.

Statistical Support – Residents have access to a research analyst and a departmental statistician to aid in study design, IRB submissions, and data acquisition, storage, and analysis.

Research Day – Residents have the opportunity to present their work at this annual event. In addition to networking across the Department of Medicine, residents participate in several small group sessions, each devoted to a different aspect of research.

Travel Grants – Residents can apply for funding to help offset travel and registration expenses when presenting their work at a regional/national conference.

Research Track – In partnership with the WVCTSI, the Research Track offers advanced training in clinical/translational science to residents interested in more intensive research training. Residents in this track may obtain an MS degree in clinical and translational science by the end of their residency, although an alternative to the MS degree is a certificate (requires fewer credit hours) in either Clinical and Translational Science or Applied Biostatistics (through the School of Public Health). Residents in the Research Track may take up to three Elective Research months.

Mountaineer Stimulating Access to Research in Residency (StARR) Program – Sponsored by the WVCTSI and funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Mountaineer StARR Program is designed to accelerate research independence among residents-in-training who will pursue a clinician-investigator career. Residents accepted into the Mountaineer StARR Program will 1) participate in a structured professional development program (Residents Research Academy), 2) obtain a Master of Science in Clinical and Translational Science, 3) conduct mentored clinical and/or translational research (defined as research with human subjects or populations, or with direct application to human health), and 4) submit applications for extramural research and/or research career-development funding.