Reasons behind the increase in research activities among medical Students of Karachi, Pakistan, a low-income Country

Baig, Shoukat Ali; Hasan, Syed Saud; Ahmed, Sara; Ejaz, Kiran; Aziz, Sina; Dohadhwala, Nava Asad

doi:10.4103/1357-6283.120705

Cited by 22 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Indeed, students in developing countries were not significantly less exposed to research, a result which may be reflective of the higher interest rates, bolstering research engagement despite inadequacies in resources. These results are supported by the findings of Baig et al, showing that 40% of Pakistani medical students viewed research as a tool to secure competitive residencies in the US [86]. …”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 72%

“…These results indicate that in a large fraction of cases, medical students perform research for purely pragmatic reasons (related to their residencies or further post-graduate education), rather than pursuing research for the value it has in and of itself (Table 1) [48,49,52,54,55,82,86]. …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We retrieved studies that were performed in India [67,72], Uganda [68], China [69], Brazil [70,74], UAE [71], Croatia [73,79], Pakistan [75,77,80,86], Peru [76], and Turkey [78]. …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Medical Student Research: An Integrated Mixed-Methods Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

et al. 2015

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ImportanceDespite the rapidly declining number of physician-investigators, there is no consistent structure within medical education so far for involving medical students in research.ObjectiveTo conduct an integrated mixed-methods systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies about medical students' participation in research, and to evaluate the evidence in order to guide policy decision-making regarding this issue.Evidence ReviewWe followed the PRISMA statement guidelines during the preparation of this review and meta-analysis. We searched various databases as well as the bibliographies of the included studies between March 2012 and September 2013. We identified all relevant quantitative and qualitative studies assessing the effect of medical student participation in research, without restrictions regarding study design or publication date. Prespecified outcome-specific quality criteria were used to judge the admission of each quantitative outcome into the meta-analysis. Initial screening of titles and abstracts resulted in the retrieval of 256 articles for full-text assessment. Eventually, 79 articles were included in our study, including eight qualitative studies. An integrated approach was used to combine quantitative and qualitative studies into a single synthesis. Once all included studies were identified, a data-driven thematic analysis was performed.Findings and ConclusionsMedical student participation in research is associated with improved short- and long- term scientific productivity, more informed career choices and improved knowledge about-, interest in- and attitudes towards research. Financial worries, gender, having a higher degree (MSc or PhD) before matriculation and perceived competitiveness of the residency of choice are among the factors that affect the engagement of medical students in research and/or their scientific productivity. Intercalated BSc degrees, mandatory graduation theses and curricular research components may help in standardizing research education during medical school.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 72%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Medical Student Research: An Integrated Mixed-Methods Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

et al. 2015

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“…However, motivations behind this interest varied from context to context across countries. For example, some students were interested in research to be competitive for residency [4,31,32], enhance curriculum vitae or resumés [32,33], and for some international medical students to gain admission into U.S. residency programs [33]. Nonetheless, the expressed interest in research did not translate into many more medical students thinking of becoming physician-scientists.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contemporary global perspectives of medical students on research during undergraduate medical education: a systematic literature review

Stone

Dogbey

Klenzak

et al. 2018

Medical Education Online

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Background: The need for increased expertise in evidence-based medicine and concerns about the decreasing numbers of physician-scientists have underscored the need for promoting and encouraging research in medical education. The critical shortage of physician-scientists has assumed a dimension demanding a coordinated global response. This systematic review examined the perceptions of medical students regarding research during undergraduate medical school from a global perspective. Methods: Articles for this review were searched using PubMed, SCOPUS and Cochrane. Studies published within the last 10 years of the start date of the study that met specified criteria were included. Identified articles were initially screened by title as well as keywords and their abstracts were further screened to determine relevance. Full-text of screened articles were read for validation prior to inclusion. Results: A total of 26 articles from the literature met the set criteria for final inclusion. Contents of the abstracts and corresponding full-text articles were analyzed for themes on the research perspectives of medical students. The themes derived comprised: research interest, physician-scientist decline and shortage, responses to physician-scientist shortage, curriculum issues, skills (motivation and self-efficacy), research needs, socioeconomic and cultural issues, and barriers. Conclusion: Despite the wide variations in medical education systems worldwide, the perspectives of medical students on research in undergraduate medical education shared many common themes. Globally, medical students underscored the necessity and importance of research in medical education as reflected by many students reporting positive attitudes and interest in research endeavors. Moreover, a worldwide consensus emerged regarding the decline in the numbers of physician-scientists and the necessity for a reversal of that trend. Various barriers to research engagement and participation were highlighted.

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“…Nevertheless, there is a large number of research-active medical students who are using research as tool to facilitate their emigration from the country [8]. As a matter of fact, the use of research as an Bemigration tool^is a known trend in developing counties [3,9] and warrants further investigation by policy decision makers and social scientists.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Evolution of Undergraduate Medical Student Research Activities: Personal Experience of a Developing Nation’s Uprise

Amgad

Shash

2015

J Canc Educ

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Revolutions are swift, while evolution is typically a slow, incremental process. One of the most notable things that happened after the Egyptian 2011 revolution was the explosive uprising of youth. Regardless of the political turn of events, which is surely not the subject of this piece, it was becoming increasingly clear that something beyond politics was radically changing the academic landscape, particularly among university students. What started as a "revolutionary" interest in science and research quickly transformed into a continuously changing "evolutionary" process. As a finalyear medical student who spent half of his medical school before the revolution, and half of it after the political turmoil, I was lucky to be one of the earliest Bexperiments^demonstrat-ing the value of strong mentorship on developing an early aptitude for research. One year before the revolution, an oncology summer rotation was developed at the National Cancer Institute (NCI, Cairo University), designed to test the applicability of incorporating oncology rotations into the core medical curriculum in medical schools in developing countries [1]. I joined the course in its second year; the year of the revolution. The course instructor-who later became my long-term research mentor and is co-authoring this opinion piece-integrated an academic writing component into the rotation, as a way to stay in par with the thenbudding interest in research among the revolution youngsters. The result was a published literature review article that he and I co-authored on the very same topic that the oncology summer school addressed: oncology education for medical students in developing countries [2].I cannot overstate the importance of early research exposure and continuing mentorship on developing my character and research understanding. Three years after my initial research exposure, I now have seven published papers in international peer-reviewed journals (six of which are in PubMedindexed journals), one local and two international conference abstracts and one co-authored book chapter on cancer epidemiology. I appear as the first author on three of the published papers, and as the second author on the other four. But what is it that caused such a paradigm shift? Was it the early sense of achievement? Was I simply lucky to have gained a head start? Perhaps luck had a role, but according to our latest metaanalysis on medical student research, about one in three research projects undertaken by medical students gets published in international peer-reviewed journals [3]. Clearly, I am no special case; I am simply a case study demonstrating the untapped potential of medical student involvement in research. Project after project, I saw my research competence rise and my research confidence grow. I became more systematic in my approach to the literature, understood the importance of good planning and note-taking, became more accustomed to mining for literature Bgaps^, and gained much proficiency in academic writing.Beside its impact on my scientific produ...

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Reasons behind the increase in research activities among medical Students of Karachi, Pakistan, a low-income Country

Cited by 22 publications

References 8 publications

Medical Student Research: An Integrated Mixed-Methods Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Medical Student Research: An Integrated Mixed-Methods Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Contemporary global perspectives of medical students on research during undergraduate medical education: a systematic literature review

The Evolution of Undergraduate Medical Student Research Activities: Personal Experience of a Developing Nation’s Uprise

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