Gaining experience and involvement in research is paramount to appreciate not only the evidence-based medicine but also to understand various important aspects of disease processes and their treatment. Surgical trainees very often ask about the most appropriate time when they should get involved in research during their training period, which, I believe, is dependent on the organisation of individual surgical training programme. I would very much appreciate your views based on your individual current practice.
A number of general surgery training programs offer a dedicated research experience during the training period.
There is much debate over the importance of these experiences with the added constraints placed on training surgeons including length of training, accreditation council limitations, and financial barriers.
Researchers at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, performed a study in order to quantify the impact of a protected research experience on graduates of a university affiliated general surgery training program.
They surveyed all graduates of a single university affiliated general surgery training program who completed training from 1989–1999. Data was obtained for 100% of the subjects.
98.6% of graduates (72/73) completed a dedicated research experience (range: 1–5 years). Currently, 72.6% (53/73) are practicing academic surgery and 82.5% (60/73) are engaged research activities. 69.5% (51/73) of graduates have current research funding including 32.9% (24/73) with NIH funding. Of all graduates, 42.5% (31/73) have become full professors with 20.2% (15/73) division chiefs and 14.3% (10/73) department chairmen or vice chairmen. Those trainees achieving a career in academic surgery were statistically more likely to have committed two or more years to a protected research experience during training (p< 0.05), fellowship training after general surgery residency (p
Good question.I think sooner the better.In India most of the medical schools prescribe exposure to research methodology and submission of a research project at the end of 3 year's course for them to be eligible to take up their university examination.However the content and quality directly depend on the resident and their guides interest and commitment.I personally believe at least few of them will develop interest and this is worth all that.
A few years ago there was a proposal on how to organise residency training in the U.S. in the 21st century; the paper is attached. This included a proposal on when to include research during the course of training. The thought was that after a few years (2-3) of general surgery "basic" training, residents should be allowed to focus their training efforts on an area of specialty. This also would allow residents to then chose to take time away from clinical training to pursue a postgraduate degree in research, to then later on be allowed to return to complete their training. I believe how much research is done, should also be dependent on how much time away from clinical training gets accredited towards your board certification as a surgeon. However, from personal experience I believe the time should be a minimum of 2 years (1 is always too little to perform any meaninung "basic science") and perhaps a maximum of 3 years (all the suregons in training I know, including myself, tend to go a little bit crazy if we're away from patient care/operating for too long). I personally believe that performing research after your board certification is slightly suboptimal, because by that age and level of surgical expertise, you should really be "operating high volumes" to perfect your skills; something which is often possible at a fellowship / young consultant level. Thus, my personal opinion is: Graduate from med school, 2-3 year clinical training (surgery), 2-3 years research, back to surgery to complete training and continue on to fellowship. Of note the fellowship can then sometimes also include some more research, which will definitely then be of higher quality, then if the candidate has never performed any research at all until that date....but these are my personal thoughts too.
Cheers,
O.