FIRE+ Program Description
The Focused Individualized Research Experience-Plus (FIRE+) Program was created in order to support medical student research projects that fall outside and beyond the FIRE curriculum. This Program aims to provide support, management, oversight, and tracking of student research projects and endeavors. The FIRE+ intent is to bring these students and projects under one structured program to ensure appropriate research guidance and support so that research quality, safety, and integrity are maintained and can be evaluated for a sustainable and successful scholarly endeavor.
FIRE+ Goal
The primary goal of this program is to further enhance the appreciation and understanding of rigorous research design and skills, to implement quality projects, and to achieve additional scholarly output of medical students. In doing so, this will lead to more competitive students/applications for residency match. It is a secondary goal/expectation that an outcome will be a peer-reviewed publication and/or a national conference presentation.
Program Requirements
Any research and scholarly activity performed by medical students OTHER THAN RESEARCH RELATED TO THE M1/M2 FIRE CURRICULUM is required to be included in FIRE+. New research projects outside of the FIRE curriculum in M1/M2, continuity of the FIRE project in M3/M4 years, or independent research as extracurricular activity must be approved by FIRE+. After submission of a brief in-take form, FIRE+ projects will be reviewed to ensure quality and rigor with the anticipation that the project can be publishable in peer-reviewed journals and presentable in national/international professional conferences.
All current and new extracurricular research activities, even those previously approved, must be submitted through FIRE+. Please note that for current projects, this is for tracking and follow-up purposes only, and not for reapproval (unless, for some reason, there were some concerns about the project).
For any past project for which you would like to seek FIRE+ funding, the project must be submitted through FIRE+, even if it has been completed. Funding is only possible for projects registered through FIRE+.
FIRE+ Research
Any translational and health-related research would be eligible as a FIRE+ project. However, we will broadly categorize it as bench/laboratory research, clinical research, population health/public health research, secondary data analysis including retrospective chart review, survey research, quality improvement, medical education, social and behavioral science research, review and meta-analysis and others.
Project Intake & Tracking Survey
In order to support and track ongoing research projects (outside of the FIRE curriculum), a database record needs to be created. Please complete the REDCap survey below denoting project details, mentor, etc. Please submit one survey per project.
Link: https://redcap.link/FIRE-Plus
Project Support
In addition to providing the infrastructure and support of medical student scholarly activity, the FIRE+ Program may be able to provide financial support for research projects, e.g., manuscript fees, conference fees, lab fees.
Note: FIRE+ follows UCF COM attendance policies for time away from the curriculum and/or clerkships.
Link to policies: UCF-COM-Policy-8.8.2_Attendance-Policy_6.21.2024.pdf
For More Information or Questions
Dr. R. Lane Coffee, Jr.
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Department of Medicine
Co-Director | Focused Individualized Research Experience (FIRE)
Director | FIRE+ Program
E rlc@ucf.edu
P 407.266.1539