Young GI angle: Tips and tricks for an academic career

Junior perspective: Rocío Ferreiro-Iglesias

Many doctors dream of becoming an academic. Some of these dreams are fuelled by a desire to expand our knowledge, an urge to guide the next generation of medical doctors, or, why not, the recognition everywhere. These dreams can become real, but it is necessary to create a detailed plan outlining the actions needed to reach our goals.

As aspiring academics, the actions we could take depend on where we are and which goals we aspire to achieve. Therefore, a good starting point is to write a list of some different requirements as a support for successful advancement:

Education

Numerous resources are available, and keeping up with the latest advances in each field is very difficult. Online and classroom courses will get you up-to-date knowledge. You can find different platforms (e.g. https://www.ueg.eu/education) or even design your own courses. Moreover, although skills and experience play an important role, doctors should follow guidelines and create their own protocols. Consensus documents and evidence-based clinical practice guidelines turn out to be recommendations that allow the best decision-making between doctors and patients in different clinical situations.

Research and science

Research can help to find answers to things that are unknown in order to build knowledge. However, information does not exist if it is not published, it is fundamental to research and publish it. Completing a PhD degree is the best qualification for an academic career. I recommend you achieving a PhD by publication, instead of writing one dissertation, you produce at least two/three articles to be published in peer-reviewed journals (the number of required articles may change depending on the University). By the time you present your PhD it has already been reviewed by different editors and reviewers. Therefore, your PhD will have a higher quality and you will improve your research skills and techniques. Moreover, these publications can always be consulted and are the best option to spread knowledge. Last but not least, another tip is to become a reviewer, you will gain a lot of experience.

Mentoring

Find a mentor! The benefits of a mentor-mentee relationship are incalculable. A good mentor gives us the opportunity to learn more things in less time. It is possible to have good mentors in your own hospital and/or you are able to apply for a position in some of the fellowship programs. These programs encourage the development of the mentee and are an excellent opportunity to observe the clinical and basic practice of different hospitals and learn the best way to treat your patients.

Networking and exchange

Doctors who exchange information and experiences are able to enhance their career more easily. Start networking in every local meeting, national or international congress, work in a team, collaborate with other research groups and learn from the success (or pitfalls) of your colleagues.

Grants

Find grants that help and align with your work. Ask your colleagues, visit webs of scientific societies (e.g. https://www.ueg.eu/awards-grants) and research the public and private sector about funding sources. Grants provide you with a great source of resources for big and small projects.

The lists above give a simple overview of some of the different activities that make up an academic career. Speak to your colleagues and find a mentor in your network to find out more. People spend too much time thinking about how to do things, the trick is not to be afraid. Just do it.

Senior perspective: Fernando Magro

Practicing medicine and doing clinical research are complementary. All physicians should be researchers at the bedside. When we are seeing patients, we understand our limitations and how many questions we need to solve.

How to become an academic?

The academic career should be inseparable from research and teaching capacity; an academic must transmit knowledge but must also at some time create the knowledge themselves. The pure transmission of information is not enough for an academic! Therefore, an academic must be clever and effective in looking for conditions that will create knowledge and science simultaneously.

As a research coordinator, an academic is not a pollster of money and must be a group organizer maximizing all efforts and energies for research, establishing connections with all resources available. As an academic some skills are required:

Come up with ideas and have the ability to develop them;

Discuss challenging clinical or translational problems with the team;

Criticize protocols, review data, and write papers;

Explain ideas or projects to residents and trainees interested in research and motivate them to be involved in the work;

Write review articles that allow literature systematization and expand knowledge;

Summarize and focus ideas into concrete problems;

Find adequate methods to hypothesise;

Be open to redirect your thoughts.

How to conciliate clinical practice with research and an academic career?

Organization is crucial to reconciling clinical practice and research. A clinician who is going to be an academic should make research part of their thoughts, and should read, review, use libraries and on-line tools for literature review, intertwine their research with their clinic, establish connections with different teams, have an open attitude to collaboration and establish connections with other groups, and have a statistician and a methodologist working with them to strengthen their results and observations.

How to research and transform the best research into the best clinical practice?

Research can be patient-oriented or population-based. The term patient-oriented research refers to studies that include groups of patients or healthy individuals, and aim to understand the mechanisms of disease and health, to determine the effects of a treatment, or to provide decisive analysis of disease outcomes. Clinical trials are an example of patient-oriented research. Population-based research refers to studies involving epidemiology, quality evaluation, and cost-effectiveness. Traditionally there are three types of research:

Type 1 comprises research on drug development, pharmacogenomics, disease mechanisms, genetics, genomics, and proteomics.

Examples of type 2 are clinical epidemiology and outcomes.

Examples of type 3 are emerging disciplines such as molecular and genetic epidemiology. Type 3 research creates hypotheses that can be tested in basic science laboratories. e.g. how biomarkers in animal models can translate into population-based screening tools.

Translation is crucial for a gastroenterologist, particularly for those who wish to become academics. Given the diversity of educational backgrounds and research interests, it would be necessary to customize the curriculum for almost every trainee. For instance, trainees who focus on basic laboratory research will need to become immersed in basic sciences and should be familiar with laboratory tools, while trainees with a clinical focus will need to gain exposure to basic science to learn the new repertoire of bench tools essential for understanding biomarkers, outcomes and work with precision medicine. Trainees seeking laboratory immersion could take courses in the techniques of molecular biology or genetics and work at the bench for a period of 12 months. Mentors should be able to monitor the incorporation and understanding of any translational research, turning training programs into positive outcomes. Courses, seminars, workshops, and laboratory experience are essential to all PhD programs, and, finally, the ability to publish articles in peer-reviewed journals, to obtain research grants and academic appointments, and to gain leadership positions in multidisciplinary teams should be trained and stimulated.

Why will a researcher with this profile and these skills be a better practitioner? Learning how to collaborate through multidisciplinary teams; benefitting from fundamental knowledge (study design, data collection, statistical analysis, research integrity and writing protocols); developing the ability to think out-of-the-box as a member of critical thinkers; raising the ability to observe; following the right questions; and touching the unmet needs of science and patients. This rigor will provide opportunities to lead in the best way in demanding clinical practice.