BMJ  2004;328:47 (3 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7430.47

Letter

Academic medicine: time for reinvention

What really matters?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—I share the hopes and concerns that Stewart expresses in his article.¹ I will illustrate a wider context that medicine as a profession needs to consider in promoting effective medical research.

• Should research methods be a core subject of undergraduate training rather than an uneasy bolt-on?
  
• Might consultants often now functioning with diminishing support be less interested in research spanning 20 years than surviving to retirement in 10?
  
• Is research funding being spent wisely and placed with clinicians who have the expertise to deploy it effectively and who do not have the ulterior motive of simply escaping the sometimes unattractive clinical arena?
  
• Are researchers with a clinical commitment best placed to regulate the gradient osmosing funding from the research to the clinical domain? A clinical responsibility makes it difficult to be more than semipermeable.
  

I support Stewart's desire to return research findings to the patient, with the aim . . . [Full text of this article]

Fyvie Oldmeldrum Medical Group, The Medical Centre, The Meadows, Oldmeldrum AB54 0BF dgconnell@virgin.net

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