Passion and hard work produces high quality research in UK: response to Focus on China: should clinicians engage in research? and lessons from other countries

Zhang et al. recently published the paper entitled ‘Focus on China: should clinicians engage in research? and lessons from other countries’ (1). We feel it is imperative that a proportion of clinicians are involved in clinical research. A large number of medical students complete medical school in the UK without any significant exposure to research. This gap in their medical education is worrying because research exposes one to scientific methodology and academic writing as well as developing an academic interest. Consequently, we feel that research skills should be increasingly integrated into medical school curriculums and timetables in the form of a Bachelor of Science degree, Masters Degree or through projects such as Student Selected Components (SSC’s). This will in turn encourage those with a passion for academia to pursue a dedicated research post. Every medical school in the UK offers intercalated Bachelor of Science degree programmes and several medical schools have made this compulsory.