The best way to find a topic is simply to take note -- on your shifts, in conference, at journal club -- of what you find interesting. Or of anything in routine clinical practice that doesn’t make sense to you.
Then do a preliminary lit search on the topic or question (OpenEvidence is great at this stage) to find out what's known, what's not known, what's controversial. Try to come up with a question not yet satisfactorily answered, that might be answerable with available data in a reasonable time frame. Then approach a faculty member to brainstorm further together.
Check out these resources for additional ideas:
- Faculty interests
- Past resident projects
- Department publications
- FOAMED sources like EMCRIT, REBEL EM, CORE EM, etc
- EMRA: How to Choose a Project
- Don'tForgetTheBubbles: Choosing Your Research Topic
- ACEP/EMF: Emergency Care Research Primer
- North Carolina State Libraries (libncsu)