One day during her medical residency, Dr. Rita K. Cydulka gave epinephrine
(adrenaline) to a 43-year-old patient who had asthma.
"After the patient left, one of the [supervising doctors] asked what was
going on and I told him, and he said, 'What are you trying to do, kill the
patient? Everybody knows that you can't treat a patient over 40 with asthma
with epinephrine!'
"And I guess it was everyone but me," says Cydulka. "So I started looking
all around, and it said that in all the textbooks. But I couldn't find the
primary source for that opinion, and it turned out there was none."
Cydulka wanted to find out where that information came from. "It really
was just sort of a personal curiosity to find an answer to an unanswered question."
That curiosity led Cydulka to pursue a career as a clinical research physician.
She focuses on emergency medicine.
Cydulka says clinical research physicians should have curiosity, perseverance,
and a love of learning. "And a real desire to help move the care of not just
individual patients, but populations of patients forward," she says.
"I would certainly encourage anyone who's interested in research now to
do some type of research fellowship and, if possible, one that cuts across
disciplines so that they have the privilege and the advantage of working with
people across many fields."
Dr. Tiffany Moore Simas is a clinical research physician who focuses on
caring for pregnant women. She doesn't just help the patients she sees in
her clinical practice. She's able to pursue research that she hopes will benefit
pregnant women and their families around the world -- today and into the future.
"I love making observations while in the clinical arena and transitioning
those observations into a question," says Moore Simas. "I can then design
a study in order to pursue an answer or at least some information that may
provide insight through my research efforts. Ideally, this information would
then subsequently affect future care."
Clinical research physician Dr. Brian Rowe says this is a challenging career,
but it's also rewarding. He's a member of the department of emergency medicine
at a university hospital.
"I think you have to be pretty committed to it," says Rowe. "You have to
be passionate about the area, that's for sure. If you're doing it to appease
someone else or to prove a point, it's probably not worth it because it is
a lot of work and you've got to really love doing it. So the passion has to
be there."
All doctors have large demands on their time. The demands are even greater
for those clinical research physicians who see patients in addition to conducting
research.
"It's very difficult to have a five-days-a-week office, seeing patients,
following up their lab results and making sure they get referred on to the
right people, and then try to do your research," says Rowe.
"You have to be employed in an environment that promotes it, that values
it and protects you, so you can do the work that's needed to get the grants
and write the papers."
You also need the right support and guidance, says Rowe. "I think you need
to have very good mentors, people who are going to give you advice and help
you along the way. That's a critically important thing. [And] I think that
you need to have a bit of luck, to be honest with you.
"If you're targeting the wrong area, if it's an area where the competition
is very stiff and perhaps your approach isn't that novel, then it might not
be a very successful career."
As a clinical research physician, you can make a difference for people
around the world. All of that hard work leads to meaningful results.
"I think you can make a huge difference. And it's nice to see some of your
results being used in practice and in policies and making a contribution beyond
the individual patient," says Rowe.
"I can care for somebody with asthma effectively because I
do asthma research, but I can also influence somebody in Bangladesh who's
treating a severe asthma patient by contributing to guidelines and publishing
research results. So to make that kind of impact is another way that your
career can be rewarding and stimulating."