Academic medicine: what's in it for me?
BMJ 2004; 329 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/sbmj.0410350 (Published 01 October 2004) Cite this as: BMJ 2004;329:0410350
- Timothy J Underwood, MRC/RCS clinical research training fellow1
- 1International Campaign to Revitalise Academic Medicine
A career in academic medicine is the last thing on your mind at the beginning of freshers' week, and so it should be. In fact, many people have not got a clue what academic medicine is, let alone how to get into it. But if you were to stop and think for a minute about medical school education and the training that you will receive throughout your career, it might become apparent how important academic medicine actually is.
From the biochemistry lecture hall with diagrams of the DNA double helix to the professor of surgery's seemingly impossible to answer questions, academic medicine and those within it have traditionally been the educators of the next generation of doctors—you.
The three pillars
Not only are these educators providing first class clinical care for their patients, but they are also discovering the next generation of chemotherapeutic agents or doing a multi-centre randomised controlled trial. The triple thread of clinical care, teaching, and research is what defines academic medicine. Although it is true that many doctors are great teachers and others do first class research, it is the synergy between the three pillars of academic medicine that makes it special.
A career in academic medicine can be exciting, enjoyable, rewarding, and may be the only time in your life when you genuinely know more than anyone else about your subject. All is not well with academic medicine and problems exist across the globe, however. In fact, if academic medicine was a patient it would be quickly admitted to intensive care. Although not quite at the end of …
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