Dr. Orien Tulp, founder and President of the University of Science, Arts and Technology, is a professor, author, and researcher in the field of medicine.

He has also had a long military career and is the recipient of the Legion of Merit Award. Dr Tulp has conducted extensive research on obesity and is a contributor to many academic journals.

A dedicated volunteer, he has participated in many humanitarian medical missions. 

Dr Tulp enjoys football and has been an avid skier for many years. He enjoys travelling and spending time with his wife and children in his free time.

It’s especially important for medical students because as you go into your speciality training, your chief will expect you to lend a hand to participate in some of that research.

Overall, it’s important to know how to ask questions so that your research points you toward an outcome and gives you the ability to form your hypothesis. Once you know the questions, you have to design the experiment to help answer those questions.

A lot of times, students will think of a great research project. But then you have to come back to yourself and think: “Wait a minute, what is the question I’m trying to answer? How do I know how to design the research project?” 

You need to ensure you have all the controls in there, the plusses and the minuses, so you can hopefully prove your hypothesis. You have to have a hypothesis to begin asking the right questions to design the study. 

Additionally, you should consult a statistician to determine how many subjects you may require for the project to satisfy statistical significance factors. It is important to consult the Human/Animal subjects committee if the experiments involve living subjects.

I recall a very famous study with human subjects, where they neglected to include a vital measurement (Blood Pressure) in the experimental design and thus could not report the findings of blood pressure changes which turned out to be a significant factor and an obvious flaw in their study with human subjects.

When you get that all put together, you sit down to recruit your patients or subjects, whomever they might be, and conduct the research.

So you have to know: Where do you want to go with it? And have an idea of how you’re going to get there. 

I remember when I wrote my first proposal, my mentor came to me and said, “Listen, you’re one person. You think you can do all this, but cull it down a little bit to actually make it doable because you’ve got so much in there. These are all great questions.

But you have to focus on which one is the most important, which one you’re going to really ask. What is it you want to find?”

When I looked back at it, I knew I was going to be working 90 hours a week. I had so many questions in the first proposal– it would have taken an armada of people to complete that.

So I learned something from them. I learned a lot about how to write a proposal.

And that’s something that you gain from working with the research team because they all have good ideas, but sometimes the ideas go in different directions.

You’ve got to find out which direction you want to go, which one you want to take.

We want to start with the master list and work our way down to narrow our focus. First, what is it that you’re looking for? And then, you have to tailor the questions you will ask toward that point. 

Because you have to have some basis or starting point, you have to have some grounding factor, a symptom, or characteristic or some element, with which you can say, “I think this is where we want to go with this. How do we get there? What are the questions?”

Sometimes you have to be very creative when considering how to diagnose the questions. 

In an earlier clinic, this is going back probably 20 years, a young adolescent female came in.

Our lab results said she had something inflammatory, probably appendicitis, but when the physician did the exam, she didn’t test positive for that. So, it put him in a predicament. If this ruptured, then it could be life-threatening. We needed to find out what it was quickly. So, he got very creative.

Usually, there’s a specific abdominal palpation that you can do. That will tell you what it probably is, and most of the time, that’s correct. There are a few things that will interfere with that. But most of the time, there will be a reaction with the reflexes.

The patient didn’t demonstrate that reflex system for some reason. Maybe she had nerve damage somewhere along the line. So, the doctor tried several different things.

And for the last thing tried, he said, “Let’s see you do some jumping jacks. Can you jump up and down a couple of times.” He was trying to create the symptom that he was looking for with one last reflex test before he took her into surgery. Sure enough, that was the one that worked, and he got the information he needed before going into surgery. 

That was a unique approach. The doctor needed to be creative when asking the right questions to diagnose the patient.

You have to know what questions to ask, how to find the information and how to get to focus on what you’re looking for.

When you have determined the appropriate scientific question, there are several important steps to remember as a student.

First and foremost, you need to think about how to record the outcomes of your experiment effectively. Consider the best place to document the results, whether in a traditional lab notebook, a digital database, or any other suitable medium for proper documentation.

Another crucial aspect is the reporting of negative results. It’s important to include and acknowledge negative or non-significant findings.

You have to remember that in scientific research, not all experiments yield positive or expected outcomes. In fact, reporting these results is essential for the advancement of knowledge. 

When compiling and presenting the results, whether positive or negative, you should also consider the less exciting parts of the experiment.

This may include controls that appear similar to everything else. However, it is necessary to emphasize the significance of these controls. 

You can achieve this by including them as another control group or by highlighting their importance in relation to the experimental conditions. Integrating all aspects of the experiment and presenting a comprehensive report is a valuable skill to develop.

Finding a new perspective or reframing the results can enhance their significance in certain cases. For example, in my previous research, if a particular difference in carbohydrate intake did not yield any meaningful effects, you might discover an alternative way to present the findings. For instance, you could position it as a new product, and all of a sudden, it becomes significant. 

Once your research is complete, how to publish your findings arises. It is essential to carefully consider which journal would be the most appropriate venue for your research.

Take into account factors such as the journal’s scope, target audience, and impact factor.

Additionally, it is crucial to consider your support system, including any funding constraints. Fortunately, there are journals that offer free publication options, and it is advisable for students to explore these opportunities while remaining aware of any potential costs associated with publication.

This underscores the importance of exercising creative thinking and employing effective communication strategies in scientific reporting, beginning with asking the right scientific questions.