Medical research assistants provide support to medical professionals. They assist in conducting experiments or gathering and analyzing information and data. They are employed by medical research centers and related organizations to help in different research activities. These tasks vary depending on the type of research carried out. The experiments and research they carry out are according to the protocols of the primary researchers. A medical research assistant collects, records, and analyzes experimental data. They also maintain laboratory equipment and keep inventory.
A medical research assistant must possess analytical, technical, observational, and time-management skills. They must also have a bachelor's degree in life sciences or a related subject to qualify for the job. Apart from this, they must have adequate knowledge of proper clinical procedures and clinical trials. They must also have extensive knowledge about the research subject matter and the technology used in studies.
What is a Medical Research Assistant?
What Does a Medical Research Assistant Do
There are certain skills that many medical research assistants have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, detail oriented and interpersonal skills.
How To Become a Medical Research Assistant
If you're interested in becoming a medical research assistant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 35.4% of medical research assistants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 7.1% of medical research assistants have master's degrees. Even though some medical research assistants have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Medical Research Assistant Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of medical assistant you might progress to a role such as registered nurse eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title nurse manager.
Average Salary for a Medical Research Assistant
What Am I Worth?
Roles and Types of Medical Research Assistant
There are several types of medical research assistant, including:
Medical Assisting Extern
Role:
So you've decided that you want to pursue medical assisting as a profession. There's an easy way to find out if that's the career for you. The simple answer is to become a medical assisting extern.
Whether you're trying to decide if that's truly what you want to become or if you're just working toward an education for that career, you should highly consider becoming a medical assisting extern. It's a great way to gain experience, which looks great on a resume. Plus, it won't take up a lot of your time.
As a medical assisting extern, you'll gain experience providing patient care, performing treatments and educating patients on procedures. Typically, an extern is much shorter than an internship so if you end up not enjoying yourself, then you can move on without wasting six months.
- Average Salary: $35,737
- Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Medical Scribe
Role:
A Medical Scribe acts as support for the doctor, a kind of a personal assistant, filling out paperwork, taking notes during patient interviews, monitoring some test results, and generally getting the non-clinical tasks and paperwork out of the way of the physician they work with. The role of such a Scribe is important because it allows the doctor to focus on treating and working with patients.
An ideal candidate for this position should have prior experience and knowledge of medical paperwork and a passion for medicine. A Scribe need not have any sort of college degree or be attending a university of any sorts to begin their career, but many employers prefer hiring people who do so.
A Scribe generally works twice a week, alongside their doctor, who works either eight, ten or 12-hour shifts.
- Average Salary: $30,045
- Degree: Bachelor's Degree
States With The Most Medical Research Assistant Jobs
Mouse over a state to see the number of active medical research assistant jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where medical research assistants earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Number Of Medical Research Assistant Jobs By State
| Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 7,780 | $54,870 |
| 2 | New York | 3,834 | $59,676 |
| 3 | Florida | 3,620 | $35,564 |
| 4 | Texas | 3,125 | $36,423 |
| 5 | Illinois | 3,093 | $41,099 |
| 6 | Pennsylvania | 3,080 | $43,629 |
| 7 | Georgia | 2,405 | $33,635 |
| 8 | Ohio | 2,323 | $49,013 |
| 9 | Massachusetts | 1,890 | $69,404 |
| 10 | North Carolina | 1,860 | $33,342 |
| 11 | Virginia | 1,702 | $41,957 |
| 12 | New Jersey | 1,632 | $53,777 |
| 13 | Michigan | 1,620 | $43,611 |
| 14 | Maryland | 1,574 | $57,048 |
| 15 | Minnesota | 1,546 | $40,002 |
| 16 | Indiana | 1,504 | $33,764 |
| 17 | Washington | 1,411 | $43,876 |
| 18 | Arizona | 1,349 | $40,125 |
| 19 | Colorado | 1,332 | $36,131 |
| 20 | Missouri | 1,241 | $29,188 |
| 21 | Wisconsin | 1,140 | $38,341 |
| 22 | Tennessee | 960 | $31,362 |
| 23 | Oregon | 905 | $47,156 |
| 24 | Kentucky | 838 | $34,370 |
| 25 | Connecticut | 820 | $57,700 |
| 26 | Utah | 805 | $45,230 |
| 27 | South Carolina | 775 | $31,114 |
| 28 | Alabama | 756 | $29,446 |
| 29 | Louisiana | 581 | $33,732 |
| 30 | Nebraska | 512 | $28,967 |
| 31 | Arkansas | 504 | $30,327 |
| 32 | Iowa | 495 | $43,782 |
| 33 | Kansas | 448 | $36,291 |
| 34 | Oklahoma | 442 | $29,026 |
| 35 | New Hampshire | 432 | $50,525 |
| 36 | Nevada | 417 | $42,723 |
| 37 | Idaho | 415 | $35,921 |
| 38 | West Virginia | 396 | $34,408 |
| 39 | Maine | 376 | $49,471 |
| 40 | Mississippi | 337 | $34,955 |
| 41 | New Mexico | 296 | $41,353 |
| 42 | Delaware | 264 | $45,157 |
| 43 | Montana | 255 | $33,001 |
| 44 | Rhode Island | 231 | $56,263 |
| 45 | Hawaii | 186 | $47,073 |
| 46 | South Dakota | 161 | $32,298 |
| 47 | Alaska | 141 | $43,370 |
| 48 | Vermont | 126 | $48,206 |
| 49 | North Dakota | 116 | $36,104 |
| 50 | Wyoming | 84 | $28,881 |
Top Skills For a Medical Research Assistant
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 19.9% of medical research assistants listed patients on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and detail oriented are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Medical Research Assistant Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Medical Research Assistant templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Medical Research Assistant resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Medical Research Assistant diversity
Medical Research Assistant Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among medical research assistants, 81.0% of them are women, while 19.0% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among medical research assistants is White, which makes up 50.4% of all medical research assistants.
- The most common foreign language among medical research assistants is Spanish at 57.9%.
Online Courses For Medical Research Assistant That You May Like
1. Understanding Medical Research: Your Facebook Friend is Wrong
How can you tell if the bold headlines seen on social media are truly touting the next big thing or if the article isn't worth the paper it's printed on? Understanding Medical Studies, will provide you with the tools and skills you need to critically interpret medical studies, and determine for yourself the difference between good and bad science. The course covers study-design, research methods, and statistical interpretation. It also delves into the dark side of medical research by covering...
2. Transgender Medicine for General Medical Providers
The course is a comprehensive set of didactic lectures surveying fundamentals of transgender medical and surgical treatment. The material is meant to provide the student with core knowledge that is essential for current primary care providers caring for transgender patients. There are 10 modules led by the expert clinical faculty from the pioneering Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery, located within the Mount Sinai Health System and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New...
3. Medical Terminology
Introduction to the meaning of various roots, terms and combining forms that are components of medical words...
Best States For a Medical Research Assistant
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a medical research assistant. The best states for people in this position are Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and Maryland. Medical research assistants make the most in Massachusetts with an average salary of $69,404. Whereas in New York and Connecticut, they would average $59,676 and $57,700, respectively. While medical research assistants would only make an average of $57,048 in Maryland, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. New York
$59,676
Avg. Salary
2. Connecticut
$57,700
Avg. Salary
3. Maryland
$57,048
Avg. Salary
How Do Medical Research Assistants Rate Their Jobs?
Top Medical Research Assistant Employers
Most Common Employers For Medical Research Assistant
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PRA Group Careers | $72,130 | $34.68 | 7 |
| 2 | National Institutes of Health | $61,516 | $29.57 | 4 |
| 3 | Thomas Jefferson University | $57,257 | $27.53 | 4 |
| 4 | Henry M. Jackson Foundation | $55,477 | $26.67 | 4 |
| 5 | The George Washington University | $41,255 | $19.83 | 4 |
| 6 | Oak Street Medical | $40,126 | $19.29 | 5 |
| 7 | Novum Pharmaceutical Research Services | $39,327 | $18.91 | 8 |
| 8 | Primary Care Partners | $39,289 | $18.89 | 3 |
| 9 | Celerion | $39,285 | $18.89 | 9 |
| 10 | Maine Eye Center | $38,046 | $18.29 | 4 |