Mather strongly supports resident research and scholarly activity. During their training, residents are required to complete a scholarly activity under faculty supervision.
Each week there is a protected didactic day that includes lectures and presentations by faculty and which will be attended by residents. A portion of that day is dedicated to resident research activities including mentor meetings, topic selection, literature review, data analysis, writing, etc. In addition to this weekly dedicated research time, residents also have a one-month rotation in research during their PGY-4 year.
The results of all scholarly projects are required to be either published or presented at a conference before graduation. All residents will present their findings to their peers at the Program’s Resident Research Fair during their senior year. Residents have access to a stipend they may use for presenting at conferences to cover some of the travel expenses. Due to the strong mentorship and encouragement from faculty, the psychiatry residency program has 11 abstracts submitted for the 2020 American Psychiatry Association Meeting.
Greg Haggerty, Ph.D. is Mather’s Graduate Research Educator at Mather Hospital. He joined Mather in February 2019 and has mentored several psychiatry residents on scholarly activity projects. He is extremely accessible for residents. In addition, Dr. Haggerty has given a didactic series on research as well. He attends and is an active participant in all the resident journal clubs.
Alan Kaell, MD serves as the Program’s Director of Resident Scholarly Activity and Faculty Development. Board certified in internal medicine, rheumatology and geriatrics, Dr. Kaell has been an active investigator since 1983, focusing on rheumatology and immunology, resulting in numerous published research articles and chapters. He has lectured on his findings internationally, has had privileges at four major hospitals in Suffolk County and has been a reviewer and editor of various national journals for more than 30 years. Dr. Kaell has conducted more than 20 Phase II, III and IV clinical trials for anti-rheumatic therapies and has been the recipient of NIH and Fetzer research grants.
As Director of Resident Scholarly Activity, Dr. Kaell teaches all residents a series on Research Methodology, with topics that include:
- How to choose doable projects that can be completed and published in a timely manner
- The statistics you need to understand in clinical study design and in publication and analysis of data
- The process: study design, IRB approval needs, funding sources, protocol revisions and how to handle them
- Understanding placebo and nocebo effects
- Differentiating between effectiveness and efficacy outcomes
- Selection of outcome measures – surrogate vs. other
- HIPAA and Informed Consent