Resident Research Opportunities

Research Opportunities

Highlights from recent research presentations.

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Julie Eckelberger presenting her POCUS research to her hospital medicine mentor, Dr. Lippert, and co-resident Angela Vuong.
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Katelyn Madigan presenting “Bacterial-Archeal Symbiosis and Hydrogen-Methane Economy in Methanogenic Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth” with one of her research mentors, Dr. Mishra, at National Digestive Diseases Week 2022.
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Lauren Ivey presenting “Impact of Air Purification Devices on the Transmission of Aerosolized Viral Pathogens in a Hospital HVAC System” at the national ACP meeting in May 2022.
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Sarah Stern presenting “Survey Evaluating Internal Medicine Residents’ Views on Telehealth” at national Society of General Internal Medicine annual meeting.
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Scott Amrhein, Kristin Sheehan, and Kathleen Herring having fun between poster sessions at the National ACP meeting in May 2022.
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Ted Xiao presenting “Prolonged Trastuzab Emtansine (T-DM1) Treatment for Metastatic HER2 Positive Breast Carcinoma Induced Liver Injury” at National ACG 2021 Meeting. He won Outstanding Poster Presenter Award.
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Trevor Caldarera presenting his echo research with his research mentor, Dr. Stacey, at the national American Society of Echocardiography conference.
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Will Green and Wes Parker presenting an interesting case with their mentor, Dr. Lippert, at the regional hospital medicine conference.
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Zack Pruitt presenting his Watchman research with his research mentor, Dr. Richardson, at the national American Society of Echocardiography conference.

Research Curriculum Structure

The research curriculum is a vital component of our residency’s academics. Didactic sessions focusing on building the skills to do research are provided to the entire residency at Noon report from expert researchers. There are also opportunities to meet with research mentors at structured “meet and greet” events arranged by the residency program in the Fall of each year and a Research Symposium every Spring. Other opportunities are provided to residents based on postgraduate year and are delineated below. 

Postgraduate Year I

  • EBM Curriculum and Statistics Lecture: Lectures given during intern Y-weeks help you understand how to interpret research findings, determine if they apply to your patient population, and put groundbreaking research into practice.
  • Spring: Apply to Tinsley Harrison Research (THR) Pathway or Clinical Scholars in Informatics (CSI) Pathway.

Postgraduate Year II

  • Weekly Y-month Journal Clubs during Academic Half Days. Building off skills learned through the EBM curriculum, articles for discussion are chosen to align with the clinical curriculum. 
  • Elective time may be spent on research. 
  • Participate in THR or CSI pathways, providing additional research education and mentorship.

Postgraduate Year III

  • Ongoing journal club experience, including the opportunity to lead a session of interest to you. 
  • Residents encouraged (through all years) to present research at national meetings and/or publish research
  • Continued time for research elective time.

Residents participating in research electives are given the opportunity to present their work during a Research Spotlight at Noon Report. This research forum allows residents to discuss their research ideas and findings with their colleagues and receive practical experience presenting their work while increasing resident collaboration and engagement.

Tinsley R. Harrison Translational Research Scholar Program

Interns and second year residents are invited to apply to the Tinsley R. Harrison Translational Research Scholar Program, which provides mentorship, research skills education, and protected time for pursuing translational research with the goal of training future physician-scientists.

Internal Medicine Research Day

Once each year, residents present their work in poster format at the annual Internal Medicine Research Symposium, where award winners receive cash prizes. For questions regarding next year's event, contact Rose Williams, Research Day Coordinator.

The residency program also provides financial travel assistance for presentations at regional and national society meetings.

Research Mentors

The Department of Internal Medicine is fortunate to have many faculty actively involved in research and excited about mentoring residents as they develop and perfect their own research skills. The following is not a comprehensive list; there may be other faculty who would be more than willing to mentor a resident upon request and approval.

View recent research mentors (PDF)

Highlighted Research and Publications

In the past two years, we have had over 40 publications in peer-reviewed journals and have presented over 35 abstracts at national conferences. The Department of Internal Medicine helps set aside time for residents to attend these conferences and supports their endeavors with travel funding.

Scholarship is integral to training in internal medicine, and Wake Forest University School of Medicine's program is committed to making research both available and productive. Faculty physicians participate in a wide range of research, including bench-level basic science investigation, bedside clinical trials and population-based analysis of therapeutics.

The residency program supports mentorship in research beginning in the internship year and builds on this experience with research electives in the HO2 and HO3 years. Every year, our residents publish numerous peer-reviewed articles and present many abstracts at regional and national meetings.