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Health research is essential toimproving health care [1].Unfortunately, health research
has a low priority in the developingworld. In all disciplines of scienceand technology, India and Pakistancombined have 208 researchers permillion citizens [2,3], as comparedto 4,526 researchers per millioncitizens in the United States [4]. Thepublished research output from South
Asia is smallSouth Asian healthresearchers accounted for only 1.2%of all papers within the Institute forScientific Information database from19922001 [5]. Developing countriesmust therefore enhance their researchcapacity to efficiently address thegrowing burden of both communicableand non-communicable diseases [6].
Engaging Medical Students
in Health Research
One long-term strategy for promotinghealth research is to target medicalstudents early in their careers.Most of the research to date on the
effectiveness of such a strategy has beendone in Western settings. This researchhas shown that research experience asa medical student is strongly associated
with postgraduate research involvement[7,8].
Student research can also contributeto the published output of aninstitution. In Germany, for example,medical students authored 28% ofthe publications of one institution,including first authorship in 7.8%of papers [9]. Nothing can be more
motivating for a student than to getpublished.Even if the experience of doing
research as a student does not lead toa later career in academic medicine,research experience can help improvestudents skills in searching andcritically appraising the medical
literature, independentlearning, and writingresearch papers [10,11].Such exposure toresearch as a studentcan also help to identifyfuture careers, establishimportant contacts, andsecure better residencypositions. Given themany benefits of doinga research project as astudent, not surprisingly,97% of studentsconsidered research asa useful alternative toelectives [11].
Student research isnot without its problems.Good mentorship,for example, is a vital componentof effective student research, andinadequate mentoring can lead todiscontentment with research. Otherproblems include lack of time, neglectof routine studies and deteriorationof clinical skills due to more time
being spent on research activities, andinadequate project management [12].The perceived competitiveness andgreater demands of a career in academicmedicine and lower salary comparedto private practice may deter studentsfrom research. Another concern is thatstudents may work simply as juniorlaborers with no role in designing theresearch or in critical thinking duringthe research process. For example, theymay be told to review, say, 200 charts,and hand over the data to the principalinvestigator. Those who criticize medicalstudent research would also argue thatstudent papers are rarely cited, and thusare of limited utility.
Student Research in South Asia
Student research is dependent onnational research activity. Sincethere is still only a limited researchinfrastructure in many developingcountries, this means that opportunitiesfor medical student research arelimited. Research is not considered a
part of the medical curriculum in manyof these countries.
In one Indian study, for example,91% of interns reported no researchexperience in medical school [13].Thus, students in India rarely getexposed to research at this crucial stage
in their academic development whensuch exposure could encourage furtherresearch after qualification. Facultyacross South Asia themselves seldom
Student Forum
Open access, freely available online
November 2005 | Volume 2 | Issue 11 | e322
The Student Forum is for medical students
to give their perspective on any topic related
to health or medicine
Why Medical Students Are Crucial
to the Future of Research in South AsiaFawad Aslam*, Murtaza Shakir, Muhammad Ahad Qayyum
Citation:Aslam F, Shakir M, Qayyum MA (2005) Whymedical students are crucial to the future of researchin South Asia. PLoS Med 2(11): e322.
Copyright: 2005 Aslam et al. This is an open-accessarticle distributed under the terms of the CreativeCommons Attribution License, which permitsunrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction inany medium, provided the original author and sourceare credited.
Fawad Aslam and Murtaza Shakir are final-yearmedical students at the Aga Khan University inKarachi, Pakistan. Fawad Aslam is also the vicepresident of Aga Khan Universitys Student ResearchForum. Muhammad Ahad Qayyum is a final-yearmedical student at the Punjab Medical College inFaisalabad, Pakistan.
Competing Interests:FA is the vice president of theStudent Research Forum at Aga Khan University. MSand MAQ have declared that they have no competinginterests.
*To whom correspondence should be addressed.E-mail: [email protected]
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0020322
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0020322.g001
Figure 1. Factors That Can Help Encourage South AsianMedical Students to Choose a Career in Academic Medicine
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engage in research owing to inadequatetraining in research, lack of incentives,
work overload, poor pay, and minimalresearch demand in clinical practicefrom patients, fellow physicians, andpolicymakers. Consequently, studentsare deprived of mentors and rolemodels. Medical training in generalin South Asia does not emphasize the
importance of research to medicalpractice. More than two-thirds of thepostgraduate trainees at one Pakistaniinstitution, for example, reportedreading scientific journals only once insix months or more [14].
Taking Action
What can be done to increase medicalstudents involvement in researchin South Asia (Figure 1)? First andforemost, the research infrastructureneeds extensive improvement, and
the meager funding for research mustbe boosted, so that there will be ahealthier research culture in whichstudents can participate. There alsoneed to be effective internationalagreements to halt the brain drain ofacademic clinicians from low-income tohigh-income countries [15], since thismigration robs medical students of rolemodels.
In addition, students need to besensitized to researchthat is,they should be made aware of whyresearch is so crucial to health care.
The medical curriculum must begin toincorporate and emphasize evidence-based medicine. To stimulate studentsinterest in research, we believe thatthey should undertake a mandatorycourse on research skills, along with acompulsory community project. Suchprojects undertaken in the primary-caresetting will allow students to executeall the steps of a research project, fromconception to final report writing,thereby narrowing the gap betweentheory and practice. Elective slots
should be available to those students
who are interested in pursuing furtherresearch. Young researchers need tobe encouraged, for example, by beingawarded scholarships. Prior researchexperience should be seen as valuable
when recruiting postgraduate trainees.Only when students are sensitizedin this wayand provided that theyalso have sufficient flexibility and
security to pursue a career in academicmedicinewill they choose careerpaths involving research.
Conclusion
At our own medical schools, we believethat medical students are becoming
more enthusiastic about getting involvedin research, which is encouraging. Some
efforts to promote student researchare already underway in South Asia.
For example, student conferences andresearch workshops are being held
in major cities of Pakistan, and somemedical journals, including theJournal
of Postgraduate Medicine(India) and the
Journal of the College of Physicians and
Surgeons of Pakistan, have introduced
student sections. The students at AgaKhan University in Pakistan, which has a
well-established research infrastructure,have won awards for their projects
at international student conferences
and have published widely in indexedjournals. Given the right amount of
support, medical students interest in
research can be successfully nurtured.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Fahim Jafary for criticallyreviewing the manuscript and being a
worthy mentor. We are also thankful to ourcolleagues Abdul Waheed and Abdul MoizKhan for providing valuable input.
References
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