BMJ  2005;330:360 (12 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7487.360

Letter

Academic medicine: who is it for?

Four old pillars seem to have been replaced by two new ones

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

EDITOR—Abbasi's four pillars of academic medicine—research, implementation of evidence, teaching, and improved delivery of healthcare—correspond closely with my perception of academic medicine as it was when I took up my first academic post 20 years ago.¹ As a result, to be a clinical academic was regarded as a privilege. What's more, for those who made the grade, it was enjoyable.

But, at least for the United Kingdom, Abbasi has the tense of the verb wrong when he says that this is what academic medicine is about. It was, but no more. The two pillars of academic medicine are now getting large research grants and publishing papers in journals with a high impact factor. These two may or may not be relevant to his first pillar, but they are pretty irrelevant to the other three. For example, teaching is devalued unless it is turned into an academic specialty in . . . [Full text of this article]

Leicester General Hospital, Leicester LE5 4PW pnf1@le.ac.uk

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