Research and Quality Improvement Projects

Residents discuss their research projects

All residents are required to participate in research and to present their active project at Resident's Research Day in June each year. There are other opportunities for scholarly activity including journal club, departmental, local, and regional presentations, publication of case reports, and participation in other research activities in or outside the department.

All residents also participate in Quality Improvement projects during their training. The goals of this part of the program are for the residents to develop an understanding of clinical research and its application to the practice of medicine, and for the residents to understand the requirements of human research. The residents will develop written and verbal communication skills by verbally presenting a research project, and they will also develop an improved understanding of the statistical evaluation of data.

The UNMC Office of Graduate Medical Education supports resident research and quality improvement with the Education Research Collaborative which offers support for such things as study design, data collection, and research analysis. Also, the Graduate Medical Education Research Journal provides a platform for residents and fellows to publish peer-reviewed work. The Graduate Medical Education Research Symposium is an annual event where house officers present their research with poster and oral presentations.

Each resident works with a faculty advisor on their project, who in turn works with the residency research director, Melissa Mathes, MD, and the program director, Laura Cudzilo, MD, for advice and guidance.

These are projects that have been completed by the residents who graduated in 2024:

• Elizabeth Kastrick, MD, Contraceptive Counseling and Practices of Patients Taking Trikafta
• Gerson Manriquez, MD, Outpatient Cervical Ripening: Friend or Foe?
• Jordan McColm, MD, Transgender Male Cervical Epithelial Thickness in the Time of Total Hysterectomy
• Sydney Randall, MD, Implementation of an Objective Ankyloglossia Assessment Tool and its Impact on Identification and Management via Frenotomy: A Quality Improvement Project
• Macy Walz, MD, The COVID-19 Invasion: Placenta Edition