Abstract
There has been a recent surge in the creation of medical student-led and foundation trainees-led research collaboratives in surgery. These have mainly been in general surgery. The current study therefore explores the value and feasibility of such collaboratives, highlighting the scope for a similar idea in orthopaedics.
Research Collaborative organisations were systematically searched and reviewed to check whether medical students or junior doctors prior to speciality training led them. The advertised research projects and subsequent publication productivity for each identified organisation was also evaluated using the information presented on their websites.
Two medical student-led research collaborative organisations and 1 medical student and foundation trainees-led research collaborative were identified. All of which are in general surgery and none in trauma and/or orthopaedics surgery. These include STARSurg, EuroSurg and GlobalSurg respectively. A total of 6 research collaborative projects were identified with 3 leading to subsequent publications.
This study highlights the value and feasibility of medical students- and foundation trainees-driven high quality surgical research collaborative. It also emphasises the growing contribution of medical students towards research and policymaking in our global health system, an aspect that may be absent or delayed in the field of orthopaedics. We therefore, explore the idea as well as the need to instigate a similar collaboration in the field of trauma and orthopaedic surgery.
