ScholarTalk: Biomedical Conversations for Students

For the second ScholarTalk post in celebration of American Heart Month, I talked to Martin Gerdes, Ph.D., professor and chair of biomedical sciences at the NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine, about how students can start participating in scholarly conversations in the biomedical sciences. Gerdes studies heart failure and his research has appeared in top biomedical publications. He's secured more than $31 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health during his career, including his current $1.8 million grant for investigating the effect of thyroid hormones in preventing heart disease.

Diving headfirst into scholarly conversations can be intimidating, but Gerdes has some great tips. To keep up with the latest developments in the biomedical sciences, he suggests signing up for new article alerts using PubMed (to learn how, head over to Wisser Library or the Medical Library at NYIT's Old Westbury campus). "Review articles are always a good place to start," he says.

Gerdes also recommends attending professional events. "I prefer smaller conferences but large meetings hosted by the American Heart Association or Experimental Biology meetings provide a good comprehensive update of exciting new developments," he adds.

And what about the Web? Although many scholars use social media outlets to communicate ideas and research on the Internet, Gerdes points out this can be tricky terrain to navigate in the biomedical sciences field. Among his concerns are privacy and "attracting the attention of animal rights activists who don't really understand where all advances in medical treatment come from. Some of these people are now threatening family members of biomedical scientists." Despite such reservations, Gerdes says he plans to use social media for scholarly communications in the future.

Stay tuned for Part III on Monday, Feb. 23. Gerdes will share more on collaboration and funding in the biomedical sciences.