When we opened Lumono’s first private beta this fall, we weren’t sure what to expect. Our early testers ranged from medical students who had never conducted research before to those who had completed some amount of research, such as a case report or database research.

Despite the mix of backgrounds, one theme emerged louder than any other:

The biggest barrier to doing research isn’t the statistics or the data analysis — it’s simply getting started, especially without structure or a mentor.

And that insight is shaping where Lumono goes next.

The First Hurdle: Choosing a Research Question

Across interviews, surveys, and open-ended feedback, trainees repeatedly identified the same sticking point: coming up with a research question.

Here are a few common questions trainees often ask:

“Where do I even start?”
“How do I know if my question is too broad or too narrow?”
“What if this has already been done?”
“What does a good research question look like?”

Even trainees who found our instructions clear and intuitive still marked this initial step as the most confusing and time-consuming.

This helped crystallize a core truth about medical training today:

Most trainees never reach the point where they can struggle with the mechanics of research — because they can’t get past the first hurdle of finding a project or generating a question on their own.

For many, the only paradigm of research they’ve encountered is:

“Join someone else’s project.”

Not:

“Create your own original idea and lead a study from start to finish.”

This systemic bottleneck is precisely where Lumono sees an opportunity to make a transformative impact.

While “joining someone else’s project” may sound like the easier option on paper, this route is fraught with challenges, and most projects do not end up seeing the light of day – sometimes after months of effort. We will cover this topic in more detail in a subsequent blog post. 

The Personality Pattern: Who Thrives Today, and Who Needs More Support

One of our clearest learnings was that early adopters tended to share a particular profile:

• Curious
• Self-directed
• Excited by independent exploration
• Comfortable making decisions without constant reassurance
• Motivated by creative problem-solving

These trainees thrived using Lumono’s current level of autonomy.

But we also recognized something important:

Most medical students and residents are not naturally independent researchers — and they shouldn’t have to be.

To truly democratize research, Lumono cannot rely solely on self-starters. We need to support learners who feel unsure, intimidated, or overwhelmed — the ones who would benefit most from structure, mentorship, and guidance.

This realization naturally guided us toward thinking not just about the individual user, but about the systems around them.

Why Institutional Backing Matters

As we looked across our beta feedback, a pattern emerged:

Trainees who had academic structure — through coursework, faculty supervision, or defined research pathways — were far more likely to start and complete a study.

Structure provides:

• Clearer expectations
• Guardrails around topic selection
• Access to faculty expertise
• Alignment with curricular or departmental priorities
• Confidence that their topic is worthwhile
• Accountability to move forward

In other words:

Institutions provide the scaffolding that individual learners often lack — especially at the earliest, most crucial stage of the research process.

This insight points toward a natural evolution for Lumono:
exploring ways to work more closely with medical schools, residency programs, and academic departments to create supportive, guided environments where trainees can succeed regardless of their starting confidence level.

Rather than relying on each trainee to independently generate a research idea, institutional involvement can offer direction, mentorship, and meaningful academic context — while Lumono provides the executional power.

Where Trainees Wanted More Guidance

Even with Lumono simplifying the execution of database studies, trainees still wanted deeper support around key decision points:

1. Confounder selection

The most consistently challenging step. Trainees were unsure which variables mattered and why.

2. Early insight into study feasibility

Users wanted to know upfront if their study would be underpowered or too narrow before investing time.

3. Help interpreting results

After generating outputs, trainees needed more support understanding what the findings meant and how to contextualize them.

4. Confidence that the topic was clinically relevant

Many asked for reassurance that their idea aligned with journal expectations or clinical interests.

These are precisely the areas where Lumono can act like a “digital research mentor” — and where institutional involvement amplifies that mentorship.

What Users Loved — and What Encouraged Us

Despite being an early product, tester responses were consistently positive:

• Clarity of steps: 4/5
• Helpfulness of instructions and tooltips: 4/5
• How much Lumono helped them learn research skills: 4/5
• Likelihood to recommend: consistently 5/5 “extremely likely”
• Barriers to creating additional studies: none reported

Multiple testers described Lumono as confidence-building — a theme we heard repeatedly and one of the outcomes we care about most.

These early results reinforce that the core concept works: Lumono can meaningfully help trainees learn and execute research, even at an early stage in their journey.

What’s Next for Lumono

Based on everything we learned during the beta, our next phase is focused on discovery — not prescriptive feature-building.

We’re now exploring:

• How Lumono can better support independent trainees who want to create their own research from scratch
• How Lumono can better serve institutions, departments, and faculty who want to provide structure, oversight, and guided pathways for their learners
  

Our goal is to understand how Lumono can fit into both realities:

• Empowering the self-driven researcher, and
• Supporting the many trainees who rely on academic structure to get started.
  

The beta gave us clarity on the problem. This next phase is about discovering the right solutions — in partnership with both learners and institutions.

Closing Thoughts

Our first beta confirmed something we’ve believed from the beginning:

There is enormous, untapped research potential within medical trainees — but most don’t know how to take the first step.

Some students are naturally curious, independent, and motivated enough to generate their own questions. But most need structure, direction, and mentorship to cross the starting line.

Lumono aims to support both.

As we move forward, we’re excited to deepen our understanding of how Lumono can work not just for individual learners, but within the academic systems that shape their experience. And we’re incredibly grateful to our testers for helping us see what matters most.