Developing critical mass and growing our own academics

An analysis of the academic capacity of anaesthesia in the UK by publication trends and academic units

Over a decade ago, bibliometric analysis predicted the disappearance of UK publishing in anaesthesia by 2020. We repeated this analysis to assess if this had turned out to be the case, searching PubMed for papers associated with UK consultant anaesthetists for 2017-2019 across 15 journals. Although the rate of decline has flattened using the same search filter, including a wider range of publication types shows that outputs still remain at half 1990s levels (381 papers for all 3 years combined), authored by 769 anaesthetists, 274 of whom are associated with an academic centre. There are now 11 identifiable academic units, and a further 15 places where anaesthetists have affiliations with academic centres as individuals. The majority of papers (71%) are in secondary analysis (observational, database and association studies, surveys and meta-analyses), rather than in primary research (clinical trials or laboratory studies). These data reflect the current academic capacity in terms of publications, academic units and staffing. We discuss how this information can be used to inform a new strategy for UK academic anaesthesia.

Twelve tips for teachers to encourage student engagement in academic medicine

BACKGROUND

Recruitment of trainees into clinical academic medicine remains an area of concern across the globe, with clinical academics making up a dwindling proportion of the medical workforce. To date, few approaches have emphasised early medical student research involvement as a solution to the decline of the clinician-scientist.

AIM AND METHOD

We identify 12 tips that all medical teachers can adopt to foster medical student participation in research and encourage student engagement with academic aspects of medicine throughout their time as an undergraduate. These recommendations are based on a comprehensive review of the international literature and our personal experience of research-focussed interventions and activities as medical students.

CONCLUSION

Through these 12 tips, we provide a practical framework for enhancing medical student exposure to research at medical school. This has the potential to inspire and maintain student interest in the varied role of the clinical academic and could contribute to reversing the downward trend that has occurred in this field over recent times.