From INSPIRE grant to Stanford Neurology research to Academic foundation programme
By Felix May
I have had a long standing interest in science and research, although during medical school there was not a lot of time to get involved in real research. I heard about the INSPIRE mini grants through an email circulated to us medical students. I was interested because it offered a structure by which to undertake a project, and financial assistance as well. At first I didn’t know where to look for research supervisors and projects. I asked one of the local neurologists, Professor Zeman, if he had any ideas because I knew he was research active and I found his work interesting. He suggested a couple of people, including Professor Parvizi in Stanford, California. I read about Prof. Parvizi’s work online, and was excited by the hi-tech, invasive, in vivo neuroscience. Prof. Zeman wrote an introduction on my behalf, and Prof. Parvizi was very welcoming, and with his help I formalised a proposal for the INSPIRE mini grant. We discussed what I’d be able to do when I visited Stanford, and made a realistic plan. I was lucky enough to be awarded the grant, and booked my tickets to California that summer.
Stanford is a large University with an on-site hospital and numerous research facilities. Prof Parvizi put me in touch with some of his students, who guided me on where to find accomodation, which I found through Stanford, and booked well in advance. When I arrived I was given a tour of the clinical areas and the labs, and introduced to the research team. I undertook two projects during my time there, one a more theoretical piece on psychogenic non-epileptic seizures which I did myself, and I also got involved in an ongoing project that used cortical electrical recordings from epileptic patients who were under monitoring before having neurosurgery. This latter project was challenging, because I had to become familiar with the electrode recording techniques, the psychological testing paradigms, and the analytic software being used (Matlab). The research was incredibly technical, and was often hindered by the small sample sizes available to us. At present I am still in contact with the team in order to write up and finalise the research paper, and I hope we will publish it soon.
My Stanford experience was my most substantial research experience to date. It gave me grounding in applied clinical research, and fuelled my interest in pursuing such projects in the future. I realised that I had a lot to learn. It was clear to me that pursuing an academic foundation programme (AFP)post in research would be an ideal way to continue developing as a clinical researcher. Through a lot of work and a fair bit of luck I was offered an AFP in Exeter with a team doing epidemiological and public health type research. The application and interview processes were tough, but doing things like my trip to Stanford gave me experience and confidence thatmade a real difference.
Getting involved in INSPIRE is great because of the range of opportunities and the various levels it operates at. There are ways to get a taste of a field of research, and similarly to get heavily involved if you so choose. I highly recommend being involved in INSPIRE as a way to open doors and find areas of medical science you enjoy.