Читать книгу How to Succeed in Medical Research - Robert Foley Andrew - Страница 17

I received an email advert for a new collaborative study being undertaken in the UK, called the MIMIC study, run by the BURST collaborative. The study was looking at patients presenting to the emergency department with renal colic (pain secondary to a kidney stone). I emailed the study lead to register my interest in collecting data on 50 patients at my local hospital. I also found one of the urology consultants at my hospital to ask if he would be interested in being the supervisor for this project. I then applied for ethical approval in my hospital, using the ethical application letter provided for me by the lead author.

Once this was approved by the ethics department, I was given an Excel file by the lead authors, with a number of pieces of information to collect on each of the 50 patients. Doing this took some time, including figuring out which IT systems to use. The MIMIC study involved 71 hospitals worldwide. The study was a great success, led to a number of presentations at national and international conferences, and received a number of prizes as well. The presentations were shared among the collaborators so that a number of people had the opportunity to present. I presented the findings of the study to my local hospital's urology department. The findings were also published in the British Journal of Urology, with all of the collaborators named. Although I took a peripheral role, the study was a worthwhile endeavour and a good chance to gain experience in research without having to do it all alone!

One alternative to becoming involved in a collaborative research project is to lead your own collaborative study. It is without doubt more work to do so, so I would recommend becoming involved as a collaborator first. However, the rewards can be immense, and if you have the time and the motivation, leading a collaborative is a great experience.