ENTtoday
  • Home
  • Practice Focus
    • Allergy
    • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
    • Head and Neck
    • Laryngology
    • Otology/Neurotology
    • Pediatric
    • Rhinology
    • Sleep Medicine
  • Departments
    • Issue Archive
    • TRIO Best Practices
      • Allergy
      • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
      • Head and Neck
      • Laryngology
      • Otology/Neurotology
      • Pediatric
      • Rhinology
      • Sleep Medicine
    • Career Development
    • Case of the Month
    • Everyday Ethics
    • Health Policy
    • Legal Matters
    • Letter From the Editor
    • Medical Education
    • Online Exclusives
    • Practice Management
    • Resident Focus
    • Special Reports
    • Tech Talk
    • Viewpoint
    • What’s Your O.R. Playlist?
  • Literature Reviews
    • Allergy
    • Facial Plastic/Reconstructive
    • Head and Neck
    • Laryngology
    • Otology/Neurotology
    • Pediatric
    • Rhinology
    • Sleep Medicine
  • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Audio
  • Events
    • Featured Events
    • TRIO Meetings
  • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • Editorial Board
    • Triological Society
    • Advertising Staff
    • Subscribe
    • eNewsletters
  • Advertise
    • Place an Ad
    • Classifieds
    • Rate Card
  • Search

Five Ways to Improve Surgeon Participation in Medical Research

by Karen Appold • September 25, 2017

  • Tweet
  • Email
Print-Friendly Version

Fewer surgeons perform research today, as compared with numbers from a decade ago. It’s imperative that more surgeons perform research, say experts, because when fewer surgeons perform research, more non-surgeons will make decisions about surgical patient care.

You might also like:

  • The Decline of the Surgeon­–Scientist
  • COSM14: Case-Based Learning May Improve Medical Education
  • Empathy Training as a Tool to Improve Medical Outcomes
  • The Decline of the Surgeon Scientist

Here are some recommendations for how to improve rates of participation.

  1. Provide training early. Poor continuity of the handoff among medical students, residents, and early-stage practitioners and expected competencies is occurring, said Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA, president and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs, CMO of Bridge Health, CMO of Cliexa, and an emeritus professor of otolaryngology, dentistry, and engineering at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the Colorado School of Public Health. Therefore, it’s important to engage medical students early on and have them understand the importance of doing research to forward the agenda. Deepak Mehta, MD, director of the Pediatric Aerodigestive Center and a pediatric otolaryngologist at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, concurred, adding that trainees should have more involvement in research. “They should receive more preparation, so they are capable of performing research in different areas—which might trigger some students to make it their career,” he said.
  2. Set the numbers straight. Research needs to be listed as a line item on healthcare system budgets. Also, reestablish expectations for salaries for providers who desire to be clinical scientists, said Michael S. Benninger, MD, chairman of the Head and Neck Institute at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
  3. Seek out funding streams. Organizations’ development officers should look for donors whose primary objective is to fund research—which currently doesn’t have its own ready revenue stream. “How we direct donors is important,” Dr. Benninger said. Along these lines, Dr. Mehta said that having a separate funding agency committed to surgical and translational research would be helpful. “This would support surgeons and push them to do more research,” he said. Furthermore, Allan M. Goldstein, MD, professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, chief of pediatric surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, and surgeon-in-chief at MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston, said that funding agencies like The National Institutes of Health need to value surgeon scientists and formulate strategies to encourage them to participate more in research.
  4. Shift attitudes. Dr. Goldstein said an attitude shift to value the surgeon as a scientist needs to occur at the leadership level. “The most staggering finding from our study, published in Annals of Surgery, is that 65% of division leaders across surgical specialties believe it is unrealistic for a surgeon to be a successful basic science researcher,” said Sundeep Keswani, MD, surgical director of basic science research at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. “There seems to be a sense of pessimism among surgical leaders when it comes to surgeon scientists.” In addition, surgeons need to understand that pursuing research will be a challenge. “They need to be able to commit the effort required to submit grants and work hard to remain at the forefront of their field in order to contribute,” Dr. Goldstein said. “Making mentorship a greater part of the profession could help to accomplish this.”
  5. Contribute to aggregate research projects. Although fewer surgeons are formally conducting research, if you’re a practicing surgeon, Dr. Meyers said there are plenty of opportunities to contribute to aggregate projects. For example, for a surgical quality outcomes study you could contribute data to a bigger project to see if a certain procedure or intervention has value. “More specialty societies are engaging members to contribute their clinical data,” he said. “In a sense, you are participating in large aggregate databases that are used to generate outcomes.”

Pages: 1 2 Single Page

Filed Under: Online Exclusives Tagged With: mentorship, research, training

You might also like:

  • The Decline of the Surgeon­–Scientist
  • COSM14: Case-Based Learning May Improve Medical Education
  • Empathy Training as a Tool to Improve Medical Outcomes
  • The Decline of the Surgeon Scientist

The Triological SocietyENTtoday is a publication of The Triological Society.

The Laryngoscope
Ensure you have all the latest research at your fingertips; Subscribe to The Laryngoscope today!

Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology
Open access journal in otolaryngology – head and neck surgery is currently accepting submissions.

Classifieds

View the classified ads »

TRIO Best Practices

View the TRIO Best Practices »

Top Articles for Residents

  • How Physicians Can Build a Network to Boost Their Career
  • How To Survive the First Year of Medical Residency
  • ACGME Revises Cap on Resident Work Hours
  • Ethical Implications of Burnout in Otolaryngology Residents
  • How Physicians Can Plan for Maternity Leave
  • Popular this Week
  • Most Popular
  • Most Recent
    • New Developments in the Management of Eustachian Tube Dysfunction
    • Vertigo in the Elderly: What Does It Mean?
    • Women in Otolaryngology: Do we belong here?
    • Otolaryngology’s #MeToo: Gender Bias and Sexual Harassment in Medicine
    • Some Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Resists PPI Treatment
    • New Developments in the Management of Eustachian Tube Dysfunction
    • Eustachian Tuboplasty: A Potential New Option for Chronic Tube Dysfunction and Patulous Disease
    • Vertigo in the Elderly: What Does It Mean?
    • Some Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Resists PPI Treatment
    • Post-Operative Pain in Children Undergoing Tonsillectomy
    • Otolaryngology’s #MeToo: Gender Bias and Sexual Harassment in Medicine
    • Women in Otolaryngology: Do we belong here?
    • Letter from the Editor: We All Need to Take #MeToo Personally
    • What Otolaryngologists Should Consider When Prescribing Opioids
    • What Additional Treatment Is Indicated for Oral Cavity Cancer with Isolated Perineural Invasion?

Polls

Have you experienced or witnessed sexual discrimination or harassment in your workplace?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Polls Archive
  • Home
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy

Visit: The Triological Society • The Laryngoscope • Triological Meeting Posters

Wiley
© 2018 The Triological Society. All Rights Reserved.
ISSN 1559-4939

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.