Educating future clinician academics: the role of medical schools

No consensus on research skills in medical curricula perpetuates the unmet need for clinician researchers

Despite increasing emphasis on research translation, underpinned by the growth in hospital- university health precincts (“academic health centres”), there is a persistent and unmet need for clinician researchers in Australia and New Zealand.1^,2^,3 Such careers and the relevance of learning research remains opaque to medical students, and expectations for graduate research competencies are unclear. Unlike clinical skills, there is no consensus on the research skills that Australian and New Zealand medical graduates should acquire.4^,5 Australia is not alone; these gaps are reported internationally with calls for better defined core competencies in research that would enable purposeful design of learning outcomes and assessment.4^,6^,7 Although an absence of agreed expectations for research training is seen across the continuum of undergraduate to specialty education and training, this article focuses on primary medical education for all medical students, only some of whom will become clinician researchers.