Research

Student Research

Promotion of research is a major tenet of the LAU Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury School of Medicine’s Mission, and involvement of our students in research activities is a priority for the school.

Beginning in the Med-I year, all students benefit from a comprehensive curriculum that teaches them the principles and methods of research, with a focus on epidemiology and population health. In their third year of study they receive a course on computational health informatics in collaboration with the LAU School of Engineering, as well as a course on the methodology of clinical research.

Student opportunities for research extend far beyond these required elements of the program. Medical students are encouraged to utilize our modern basic-science laboratories for research projects under the supervision of school of medicine faculty. Many students take part in clinical studies with faculty physicians at LAU Medical Center-Rizk Hospital. Still others collaborate with investigators from LAU’s School of Arts and Sciences.

Year-Long Project (YLP) Practicum 

The aim of the YLP is to provide medical students with the opportunity to learn and apply research methods to investigate a health-related problem. The practicum will provide hands-on research experience, building on the skills learned in the population and global health curricula and methodological core competencies integrated in all modules. Students will learn the phases of the research process from conception, to design, to implementation. Through a combination of class sessions and meetings with research mentors and independent work, students in groups will identify a specific health related topic related to the general or clinical population, and that is of particular interest to them. They will formulate a specific research question, design, and conduct a rigorous and internally valid study and present their findings in written and oral format.

A list of the research projects undertaken so far by the medical students at LAU School of Medicine are listed below:

All LAU medical students actively participate in the YLP, or Year-Long Project. This supervised applied research activity in fact spans both the first and second medical years, and students have the option to extend their projects into a four-year practicum and to submit their studies for publication. In the course of the YLP, groups of students identify a health problem of local or global significance, and design and complete a research project relevant to that problem. A number of these projects have been conducted in collaboration with Lebanon’s Ministry of Health, and student investigators in turn have shared findings with the Ministry.