Getting involved in orthopedic research as a first-year medical student can feel intimidating, especially if you don’t have prior connections, a research-heavy undergraduate background, or a home academic hospital with an orthopedic department. The good news? You don’t need any of that to start making progress. This post will walk you through the main types of orthopedic research that you can realistically get involved in during your preclinical years. Each offers a unique entry point depending on your access, interests, and time commitment. The key is understanding what counts as orthopedic research and where you can contribute meaningfully, even early in training.
What Counts as “Orthopedic Research”?
Orthopedic research comes in many forms—you don’t need to be pipetting cells in a wet lab or designing a randomized control trial to contribute. Here are the most accessible types of orthopedic research for students:
1. Case Reports & Case Series
These are among the most accessible and practical research projects for early students. Case reports highlight a single interesting, rare, or educational patient case. Case series analyze a small group of patients with similar conditions or treatment. You can start by reaching out to orthopedic or sports medicine attendings and ask if they’ve encountered any recent unusual or noteworthy cases. If so, ask if you can help write it up. You’ll need to gather a few bits of information: HPI (history of present illness), Physical exam findings, Relevant imaging, Surgical intervention (if applicable), and Outcome/Follow-up. When you write up the case report, be sure to include a background on whatever condition or procedure the case was on, the patient presentation and clinical workup, a differential diagnosis, the imaging interpretation, and a discussion and review of literature supporting the diagnosis and treatment.
Tip: These reports are frequently accepted at specialty conferences and can be converted into poster presentations, giving you quick additions to your CV.
2. Retrospective Chart Reviews
These are data-driven projects analyzing existing EMR (electronic medical records) or registry data to identify trends in outcomes, complications, or demographics. Retrospective Chart Reviews have strong academic value, often leading to publications, and can teach you essential research skills like data abstraction, management, and statistical interpretation. During this type of research, you will most likely be screening charts, performing data extraction and entry, and helping complete literature reviews for manuscript writing.
3. Clinical Outcomes & Comparative Studies
These projects compare different surgical techniques, rehab protocols, or implant designs. They often rely on either objective clinical outcomes (like range of motion, infection rate, revision surgery) or patient-reported outcomes (like PROMIS or KOOS scores). Clinical outcome studies can be valuable studies as they directly impact evidence-based clinical decision making and can often find them featured at major orthopedic conferences. You’ll most likely assist with data collection, scoring PROMs, performing literature reviews/analysis, and drafting intro/discussion sections for manuscripts. As a medical student, consider clinical outcome studies as it is ideal for developing long-term academic involvement which can be vita when residencies are looking into the type of research you have performed. It is important to not only focus on the amount of research you perform but also the quality and involvement of the research.
4. Biomechanical or Cadaveric Studies
These are lab-based projects focused on surgical technique, implant mechanics, or functional anatomy using cadaver specimens or motion capture systems. From my experience they can be very fun and interesting projects to part of, allowing you to learn many things that you wouldn’t normally learn in your normal medical school curriculum. I’m currently involved in a biomechanics lab recording golf swing data with motion-capture cameras as well as preparing to begin a cadaveric study testing the efficacy of a new bunion correction surgical technique. Studies such as these allow to you learn functional biomechanics and anatomy in a surgical context which is vital information when pursuing orthopedics. They also allow you to collaborate with engineer and surgical faculty which can help diversify your knowledge and skill base.
5. Survey-Based Research
This involves collecting data from patients, students, or physicians through structured questionnaires. Survey-based research can cover many different topics such as surgical education and residency training, gender/racial disparities in orthopedic surgery, and patient satisfaction and treatment preferences. They can be great types of studies for medical students as they are very easy to do remotely, low-resource and IRB-friendly, and can offer experience in important research software such as REDCap and Qualtrics as well as basic statistical analysis. Students would possibly be expected to design surveys, perform literature reviews (surprise) and data analysis.
6. Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
These are structured literature reviews that aim to summarize and analyze the current state of knowledge on a specific question using rigorous methodology. They can be great entry points for medical students as they do not require patient access or IRB approval. They are remote friendly and can help students develop strong PubMed search, screening, and critical appraisal skills. Students will commonly complete article screening and selections, help create data extraction tables, and write the background and discussion for the manuscript.
Final Thoughts
There are multiple entry points into orthopedic research, each with different demands and benefits. Whether you’re diving into a cadaveric biomechanics project or collaborating on a remote survey about MSK education, the key is to start somewhere, learn actively, and build relationships with mentors along the way.
You don’t need to publish a paper right away, you just need to get in the game and network with people. This will set you up big for opportunities in the future.
Stay tuned for the next post, where I’ll break down exactly how to find research, including: cold-emailing strategies and where to look if you don’t have home ortho faculty