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Is there a sufficient supply of clinical academics for UK medical schools? A retrospective cohort study

Waldock, William J; Hughes, Elizabeth; Dacre, Jane; Sam, Amir H; (2024) Is there a sufficient supply of clinical academics for UK medical schools? A retrospective cohort study. BMJ Open , 14 (9) , Article e086211. 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-086211. Green open access

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Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Clinical academics lead research to deliver medical advancements while also teaching in medical schools to maintain high-quality medical services. The objective of this project was to determine if there is a sufficient supply of clinical academics for UK medical schools. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Data were extracted from the UK Medical Education Database and the General Medical Council (GMC) annual National Trainee Survey between 2012 and 2022. PARTICIPANTS: 1769 registered UK doctors with academic training and a certificate of completion of training. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The percentage of doctors with clinical and academic training who ended up as incumbent clinical academics at UK medical schools. RESULTS: Approximately 50% of doctors with clinical and academic training were matched as incumbent clinical academics at UK medical schools. There was a low annual rate of incumbent clinical academics leaving their post. CONCLUSION: Either clinical academic trainees do not find jobs at medical schools, or they do not want the jobs that are available. These results are indicative but not conclusive as generalisation is compromised by inconsistent disclosure of data by medical schools. We discuss variables which may contribute to the loss of clinical academics and explore the health economic case for clinical academic incentive packages to improve return on training investment.

Type: Article
Title: Is there a sufficient supply of clinical academics for UK medical schools? A retrospective cohort study
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-086211
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2024-086211
Language: English
Additional information: © 2025 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > UCL Medical School
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10209855
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