Research and Scholarly Activity

Willis-Knighton Health System is committed to creating an environment of scholarship and inquiry for our resident physicians, and in the process to develop our residency programs dedicated significant resources in this area. You can learn more about the organization’s commitment to research here.

The program expects that each resident completes at least three research projects during their residency training, and annually presents an abstract. The project can be either a retrospective analysis, prospective analysis, quality improvement project, or other form of scholarly activity approved by program leadership. Faculty are encouraged to collaborate with residents and assist in the design and implementation of their research projects. Faculty are also encouraged to include residents in any existing research projects currently in process, and each resident will have a faculty research mentor.

The resident’s progress on completing the expected research project will be discussed and evaluated at monthly research meetings and during the semi-annual review with the program director. The WKHS General Surgery residency program policy manual also contains information regarding the expected timeline for the completion of research projects. During didactics, residents will also receive education on topics relevant to scholarly activity such as:

• The process for IRB approval
• Ethical issues in scholarly activity
• Research design and methodology
• Conducting literature searches
• Statistical methods in research