The Marshall University Geriatric Medicine Fellowship provides structured opportunities for fellows to engage in scholarly activity, including clinical research, quality improvement, and educational projects. Research is a core component of training and supports development of academic skills, advocacy, and lifelong inquiry.

Each fellow is allotted protected research time across the three years to complete a mentored, hypothesis-driven project aligned with their interests and career goals. Early training focuses on identifying a topic, developing a research question, and preparing a protocol and IRB application. Subsequent blocks are dedicated to data collection, analysis, and manuscript preparation, with the expectation of at least one peer-reviewed publication.

Fellows are encouraged to pursue projects addressing clinical geriatrics, health systems, and community-based care, with an emphasis on improving outcomes and supporting aging in place within rural populations. A fellow-driven quality improvement or patient safety project is also completed during training. Scholarly work is shared through presentations at institutional, state, and national conferences, with strong program support for dissemination and publication.