ICOM Research Mentor Profiles

Molly is interested in just about everything but tends to focus on topics that intersect health/medicine and library/research-related information, evidence-based medicine, and medical education. This includes:

• Health literacy
• Attitudes towards research
• How to best teach research skills to medical students
• The role of evidence-based medicine in the curriculum 
• Developments in research methodologies- especially systematic reviews & meta-analyses

Attitudes of osteopathic students towards research

• Purpose: To examine the attitudes osteopathic students have towards participating in research and what they see as the role of research in the osteopathic profession. We'd also like to identify potential misconceptions osteopathic students have towards research and barriers preventing them from getting involved. 
• Background: Osteopathic students and physicians are underrepresented when it comes to producing research in the medical field, and we have noticed that some DO students have negative attitudes toward research in general. The osteopathic profession stands to gain if students become interested in pursuing a physician-scientist career path or, at the very least, recognize the value research can bring to patient care. 
• Methodology: Mixed-methods- we will be sending out a survey and doing interviews (face-to-face or via WebEx)
• Status: Data collection and analysis complete; working on a manuscript. 

Molly has 20 years of experience as a medical librarian and has helped shepherd hundreds of research projects through the idea phase to completion. 

Here are some of the ways she may be able to help you with your project:

• Help you take a big idea and hone it into something that can be researched 
• Assist in searching databases to find background and supporting information
• Advise you on how to keep your information organized
• Help you identify the best research methodology/design to use to study your project
• Help you find places to present/publish your findings 
• Provide emotional support by cheering you on and giving you candy