Medical students are using popular research tool to pump out misleading studies

fn-mote•about 2 hours ago

My assumption is the credibility of a non-PhD-holding medical student’s research is 0, just like (almost) any other inexperienced researcher.

thomasfedb•5 minutes ago

As a clinician-academic who published in The Lancet during medical school, I think this goes a bit far. Unfortunately student doctors are encouraged to publish whether or not they actually have an interest in research… but that shouldn’t discount the work of those who are genuinely engaged.

But certainly we should always approach the literature critically, including the author list, journal of publication and its peer-review practices, and the methods.

sebmellen•about 1 hour ago

This is really far too broad a brush.

Do most medical students publish useless case studies trying to jockey for residency spots and signal hustle/devotion? No doubt!

But there are a good handful of medical students who are still (surprisingly) in it for the medicine and not the money. And that handful is exceedingly capable; no reason they can’t publish valuable work with the right collaborators and resources.

myroon5•28 minutes ago

> no reason they can’t publish valuable work with the right collaborators

Despite h-index claiming to balance quantity and quality, it obviously incentives quantity over quality (no single publication can increment h-index as much as churning out a few worthless publications that cite each other); med students overwhelmingly follow those incentives trying to secure better residencies

aardvark92•about 1 hour ago

I guess it depends on who the coauthors and PI are - some academic mentors can be overly trusting and ‘hands-off.’ A lone medical student’s self published paper shouldn’t be worth much though…

NotGMan•16 minutes ago

Since we have seen that 50%+ of findings even in medical and other natural sciences are not repruductible it's obvious that even PhD people are mostly incompetent.

OutOfHere•about 2 hours ago

They're just generating observational hypotheses for future investigators to examine further and maybe test in a trial. It should be presented as an observational hypothesis.

feverzsj•about 2 hours ago

90% biomedicine papers are bullshit. These students are just practicing bullshit.

DarkNova6•7 minutes ago

90% of statistics on the internet are made up anyway

Medical students are using popular research tool to pump out misleading studies

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