Advice from an Expert Radiation Oncologist on How to Create Interesting Research

The point of research, especially in medicine, is to find the answers to questions that are constantly being asked by patients and physicians alike. According to James B. Yu, MD, MHS, FASTRO, some key criteria include patients already receiving the questioned treatment as well as a trial being years away.

At a time when research is becoming more accessible—a time when statistical software is improving, and graduates and residents are able to conduct strong research—Yu claims that good research requires a novel twist to stand out. The twist can come in the form of a unique data set or a creative new way of asking a question that is of significance.

As an expert in research with over 390 published manuscripts, few are more knowledgeable on the topic than Yu, a professor in the department of Radiation Oncology and Applied Sciences, and leader of the Genitourinary Radiation Oncology Program at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, and radiation oncology editorial advisory board member of the Journal ONCOLOGY®.

Transcript:

The most interesting studies are the ones where a lot of people are asking the question, but no one knows the answer. If the trial is years away, and we know that patients are already getting the treatment, those would be the studies where there are claims or records and observational databases that you can then analyze. Increasingly, those have been mined a lot because people can do it, and statistical software is getting good. Frankly, graduates are getting better, and residents are getting better, so they can do [them]. There are a lot of observational studies out there, so the key is to find a data set that is novel and unique, or to come up with a very creative, novel way of looking at the question… You just have to be creative, now. You can’t just do treatment A vs treatment B. You have to come up with a novel twist in order to make an impactful study, get your own unique data set, merge data sets together, or look at huge genomic sets of data. That sort of thing. There’s a lot to do for sure, and it’s fun to do it. That’s one of the things I’m looking forward to as I go back to Dartmouth for an academic practice.