Research Training

A three month research rotation will be offered during the PGY 3 level. Residents will be free from clinical duties during the dedicated research rotation. Our physicians actively conduct research in both clinical and basic science areas to further advance the treatment of various orthopaedic conditions. During the research rotation, residents will be mentored .

Dr. G. Douglas Letson offers the opportunity for both laboratory research and clinical research at Moffitt Cancer Center, which houses the Sarcoma Research Laboratory, a center for ongoing research in Molecular Oncology for Sarcomas. There is a clinical research opportunity involved in translational research with clinical trials and also in clinical research for outcomes in segmental joint replacement, which is presently ongoing at the Moffitt Cancer Center. Moffitt has extensive medical libraries, computers, laboratories, IT, and staff support. The Tampa VA Hospital also offers resident research opportunities.

The ability to critically evaluate the medical literature is an extremely important part of our clinical and research training experience. Research residents will participate with journal clubs, where the focus will be the resident's ability to read scientific literature in a critical manner, giving special consideration to the article's originality, experimental design, data analysis and interpretation, and validity of conclusions. In this way the resident will learn to read scholastic materials critically and discern between well-crafted experiments whose results should be incorporated into the resident's own practice and those that should be considered with skeptism. During the three month research rotation, residents will be given instruction on experimental design, hypothesis creation, and research methods.

Residents are encouraged to continue their research experience during the clinical rotations. Clinical projects are available at all of the clinical training sites, with mentorship provided by faculty according to their specific scholarly interests. Residents are expected to complete at least one to two research projects that are of sufficient quality to present and national meetings and publish in peer-reviewed journals. Residents present their research projects to their departmental colleagues and the local community at the resident research day, which occurs towards the end of each academic year.