Subha Sellers, MD, MSCR, combines her love for teaching with research by directing the Science of Medicine course, helping fourth-year medical students transition from education to research. Her unique path from a chief resident to course director underscores her dedication to making research engaging and approachable for future doctors.
What is your role in undergraduate medical education?
In addition to bedside teaching for our senior medical students in the ICU, I am the course director for the Science of Medicine course in the medical school. This is a remote, longitudinal course for all fourth-year medical students that serves as a bridge from medical education to medical research. Students can choose a track based on their prior research experiences to advance their own relationship with research.
The goal for students who are relatively new to research is to become a responsible consumer of medical research – by identifying a clinical question, doing a literature search with the aid of one of our amazing HSL librarians, interpreting the results, strengths and weaknesses of their findings, and then communicating those findings in a narrative literature review.
We also offer an accelerated track where motivated students can accomplish these tasks and then present their findings at an Evening of Scholarship where they get feedback from faculty attendees. For students who have already had more extensive research, the goal is to move them along their own journey as researchers including being able to provide feedback, mentorship, and education on research practices.
How did you get involved in your current role?
I’ve always been interested in medical educations – probably because all the people in medicine I’ve admired have been passionate educators, excited at the prospect of sharing their excitement for medicine. This was solidified as a chief resident – there’s nothing I love more than a good chalk talk (dry erase now I suppose).
However, I was a late bloomer in the world of research, and I chose the fellowship program at UNC because it was my last opportunity to expose myself to a rigorous research career. I was lucky to find training opportunities, mentorship, and an area of interest (HIV-associated lung disease) that motivates me to keep pushing forward for my patients.
When I saw the listing for the Science of Medicine course director position, I wished that it was something I had experienced as a medical student. It felt perfect to be able to use the skills I have developed as an educator to introduce learners to the joy of research and break it down in an approachable way.
What do you enjoy in your free time or outside work?
I love to eat good food, travel, and read but mostly I want to hang out with my family. My husband is an ID doctor at WakeMed and we have two little girls, our two family dogs, and often some foster puppies running around. I prefer to be surrounded by chaos.
What advice would you give to a 1st year medical student? A 4th year medical student?
I think I would give them both the same advice – to try everything with an open mind and enthusiasm. I had no idea how many options there are to build a career you love within medicine – I thought the goal was just “doctor”. But medical training is one of the last places where you will be exposed to everything – specialties, subspecialties, sub-sub-specialties, private practice, academics, research, education, administration – the only way to find what you love it to try it all on for size. As a medical student, I thought that I was going to be an outpatient pediatrician – now I’m in a wildly different place and I never would have found this career if I hadn’t enthusiastically tried, failed, and pivoted along the way.