Associations between resident physicians’ publications and clinical performance during residency training

Abstract

BackgroundBoth research and clinical medicine requires similar attributes of efficiency, diligence and effective teamwork. Furthermore, residents must succeed at scholarship and patient care to be competitive for fellowship training. It is unknown whether research productivity among residents is related to broad measures of clinical achievement. Our goal was to examine associations between the quantity of internal medicine residents’ publications and validated measures of their knowledge, skills and multi-source evaluations of performance.MethodsThis was a longitudinal study of 308 residents graduating from Mayo Clinic from 2006 to 2012. We identified peer-reviewed articles in Ovid MEDLINE between July of each resident’s match year and the end of their graduation. Outcomes included American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) certification examination scores, mini clinical examination (mini-CEX) scores, and validated assessments of clinical performance by resident-peers, faculty and non-physicians. Performance assessments were averaged to form an overall score ranging from 1 to 5. Associations between quantity of resident publications – and ABIM, mini-CEX and performance assessment scores – were determined using multivariate linear regression.ResultsThe residents published 642 papers, of which 443 (69.0 %) were research papers, 198 (30.8 %) were case reports, and 380 (59.2 %) were first-authored. On adjusted analysis, multi-source clinical performance evaluations were significantly associated (beta; 99 % CI; p-value) with the numbers of research articles (0.012; 0.001–0.024; 0.007), and overall publications (0.012; 0.002–0.022; 0.002).ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that scholarly productivity based on journal publication is associated with clinical performance during residency training. Our findings suggest that residents who invest substantial efforts in research are not compromised in their abilities to learn medicine and care for patients.

Prevalencia y factores asociados a publicar artículos científicos durante la residencia médica en Perú

“…La investigación es un componente importante durante la formación del médico especialista. Su práctica permite lograr un mejor manejo clínico de los pacientes, desarrollar habilidades de apreciación crítica de artículos científi cos, fomentar el pensamiento crítico y del aprendizaje permanente, y tener una mayor satisfacción con su formación académica [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Para ello se han diseñado estrategias para impulsar la investigación durante la residencia, muchas de las cuales han tenido resultados exitosos en términos de producción científi ca y del prestigio de los programas académicos donde se han llevado a cabo [7,8].…”

Publication output target for ophthalmology subspecialty fellows in Australia

“…However, with the relatively low number of articles overall and the fact that publication number is only one measure of research experience and training during a clinical fellowship, we consider these other metrics less important in this initial exploratory analysis. Given the recent positive association found between publication track record and clinical skills assessment scores amongst residents in training, further work is needed to examine the relationship between surgical outcomes, clinical competency and research output amongst subspecialty fellows . In conclusion, we demonstrated evidence of clinical research training in our fellowship programme and recommend setting a target of one to two publications during or soon after subspecialty training for ophthalmic fellows in Australia.…”

Rate and Predictors of Publication of Resident Abstracts Presented at Oman Medical Specialty Board Scientific Meetings

“…Research is an essential part of postgraduate medical training; exposure to research during residency has been shown to improve critical thinking skills, stimulate interest in academic medicine and result in better clinical performance during residency training. 12,13 By presenting their research at biomedical meetings or conferences, residents have the opportunity to critically discuss their findings, exchange research ideas and potentially establish new avenues for collaboration with established investigators. In addition, the process of converting an abstract into a full-text article and submitting it to a peer-reviewed journal offers residents practical experience in data analysis, critical appraisal and academic writing as they navigate the peer-review and publication process.…”