Chelsea Mbakop (‘27), a Health and Societies major, conducted research on barriers oncologists face to discussing cancer clinical trials with patients. She was mentored by Dr. Carmen Guerra (Department of Medicine), and this research was supported by CURF Summer Research Funding.
Being a Health & Societies major on the pre-med track, I always knew that I wanted to get more hands-on experience in health disparities research, as it is an important reality of medicine. I first became involved in this project through my mentor, Dr. Carmen Guerra, who I met during the Summer Undergraduate Mentored Research (SUMR) Program. During the SUMR program, I truly grew to admire the caliber of the research we conducted, and I wanted to continue my work with her.
My research has been centered on understanding the barriers oncologists face in discussing cancer clinical trials with patients and investigating ways to mitigate that. I witnessed the long IRB approval process and gained a better understanding of the steps involved in preparing a successful application. I also completed a scoping review for a paper that will be an important reference for the project. Writing this review not only allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of the topic but highlighted how integral writing is to the research process. I know that these newly developed writing skills will be useful well into the future as I pursue a career as a physician scientist.
Aside from the research itself, connecting with my amazing mentor, Dr. Guerra, has been transformative. Not only did Dr. Guerra offer opportunities to shadow her, but she provided an abundance of hands-on guidance and continuous support. Additionally, I connected with a resident in internal medicine, Dr. Olutosin Owoyemi, a co-author of the review. Since I plan to pursue medicine as a career, it was great to be able to hear from someone a few years further along that path. She provided a lot of support and guidance outside of the project.
Having previously focused primarily on utilizing wet lab techniques, I was unfamiliar with conducting literature reviews and qualitative data analysis. Through this experience I came to appreciate the power of scoping reviews as a tool to define a starting point, enabling researchers to understand the breadth and depth of a topic before charting their path forward. I encourage other research students to also step outside their comfort zone and open themselves up to new research experiences!
Interested in reading more first-hand accounts about undergraduate research? Check out the other experiences featured on our Student News Page and Social Media!
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