Does any kind of research cut the cake?

I think if you have the grades and a competitive board score, you'll probably be fine. With your background, you understand how research works and you'll be able to chat with those staff that are research oriented as well as chat with any phd that may interview you as well. Personally, my only research was undergraduate analytical chemistry bench work where I was only a worker bee with nothing to show. However, you still need to generate good letters of recommendation and some people utilize ortho research as a way to get close to a well known orthopod.

I had non-ortho research that nobody cared about or ever asked about in my interviews, and did a little ortho stuff as a 3rd year student. This was the only thing anybody cared about. I think not having any ortho research will make it more difficult to get interviews at the more competitive academic places, but you should be fine most other places. I would really recommend doing at least some ortho research- even if you don't publish or present it, so it can go on the CV and say "in progress." Just my opinion, but when they are reviewing 600 applications and need to cut 550 of them, no ortho research may mean you get cut.

It is a fallacy that you need research to get interviews. It will definitely be more difficult to get interviews and match at the "big names" without research. However, my only "research" was a general surgery case report that did not even get submitted for publication and I was fortunate enough to still get interview offers from some big name programs even without monstrous board scores. You are definitely less likely to get interviews at big name programs without research, but it is far from impossible. Keep in mind that faculty and residents are very savvy and realize that the a great deal of research that people place on their application is BS. In fact, I would be willing to bet that the research you have already done would make you a more interesting candidate then the person who jumped in on someone else's ortho research. Please do not interpet my post to be saying that research in ortho is not helpful, but it is only one part of your application and not everyone is blessed by being at an orthopaedic mecca for medical school. In the end, I think you should do what makes you happy and will enable you to achieve YOUR goals. If you want to be at a community type program as your recent post indicated, then research will be much less of an issue then if you want to be at an academic / top 10 program. If you enjoy research then do research, but never sacrifice your clerkship grades or your sanity to do so.

I agree, research isn't the most important thing, but at most programs, it does factor into the scoring of candidates. It isn't weighted as heavily, as let's say your board scores or interview score, but is still part of your overall scoring. AND at least where i am, the really only scored the ORTHO research....i'm sure it's program dependent. But to get a high score in that category, it most likely will have to be Ortho research (not that it is fair, but...)