Research is one of the fundamental pillars of progress in medicine, be it discovering new medicines or making sure we use what we have in the best possible way. Without it we’d still be letting blood to treat fever and be dying in vast numbers from preventable/treatable diseases. The COVID pandemic has shown the value of integrating research into routine clinical practice throughout the NHS with practice changing trials such as the RECOVERY study leading the world.
An understanding of research is a crucial part of being a good doctor. Everyone needs to be able to review a paper and understand basic research methodology. However, not everyone needs to be writing grants, designing studies and working as a clinical academic.
Specialist training is an important time to gain more experience of research and potentially make some of the first steps on embarking on a research career and pursuing a higher research degree like a PhD. There are many different opportunities to participate in medical research - including writing a case report, collection and analysis of local, routinely collected data, recruiting patients into clinical trials or undertaking a training fellowship funded by one of the major research funders (e.g. MRC, NIHR or Wellcome). The Welsh Clinical Academic Track (WCAT) fellowship programme is another avenue with the aim of training the next generation of clinical academics in Wales.
Involvement in research is encouraged for all trainees. For further information please contact: stsupport@wales.nhs.uk