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Hi, good evening everyone. Um My name is Hansa Naim. I'm a core surgical trainee in the Yorkshire Dery with an interest in trouble in orthopedics. Um I'm also an education officer for the National Surgical Teaching Society today. I'll be hosting our new exciting four part webinar series uh focused on researcher pro aim aiming to provide an insight into research skills in both medicine and surgery. We've got quite an exciting lineup of speakers with a breadth of experience and knowledge boasting strong academic achievements and accolades. So we aim to provide you with, first of all today, an introduction to research, how to tackle the academic language, tell you what medical statistics actually is and what you need to know and also give you an insight into what a career in academia might look like. Just a few housekeeping rules before we begin. Um The talk today um given by doctor Chung will be approximately half an hour, give or take. Um I'd us that you keep your microphones off and cameras off during this time. If you have any um urgent questions, please feel free to drop them in the chat box. I will try and address them or I'll bring to the attention of Doctor Chung and we'll try and address things as we go. Um, and then at the end of the session, we'll also have a time for a AQ and A. Um, so if there's anything that you'd like to ask, Doctor Chung, then we can also try and address them, then, um, and at the end of the session, if you could please fill out the feedback forms that we'll uh that we'll send in the chat, um that will, that's really helpful for us to see what we can improve on next time and it will also enable you to get a certificate of attendance. Uh So just to go through today. So today we've got doctor Chung, um who is a academic clinical fellow uh in cardiology. Um I'm not gonna give him too much of an instruction because he's gonna be able to tell you a bit more about himself, er, today. Um, and then coming on to our talk on Thursday, this coming Thursday, we've got Doctor George Esworthy. Um, he's a current specialized foundation year two doctor working in the East Midlands. He's an aspiring surgeon with a strong academic background, er, with numerous successful publications. Having completed a masters in medical research at university. Then next Tuesday, we've got Doctor Hanan Chaudhury who is an anesthetic registrar based in London who has a background in statistics, having completed a co further course of study by Harvard University School of Public Health. And his main research area is big data analysis and he's got numerous peer reviewed journals related to this. And finally, Day Tuesday after that, um we've got our final talk, which is a true and academic research, what it can look like. And this is um by a colleague of mine, a mentor of mine, Doctor Anthony Howard. Um as you can see from his post nos um he's, he does a lot. He's an academic clinical lecturer at both the University of Leeds, as well as Oxford University. Um He's completed an academic clinical fellowship uh A phd and at the moment, he's working on numerous clinical trials um working with Oxford Liverpool Leeds clinical trial units working on numerous NIH R grants er and big studies. So without further ado um I will let Doctor John take over today's talker and like I said, if you have any questions, you can put them in the chat. OK? And if any anyone has any issues again, just drop a comment in the chat. Yeah, thanks so much um for the kind introduction. Um So my name is Justin. Um I as mentioned, I'm an academic cardiology trainee based in Manchester. Uh Before we start, I just wanna say thank you to the National Surgical Teaching Society for having me on uh to deliver this talk um research, something that I'm really passionate about and I think doesn't get talked about enough. Uh in medical school, in your clinical worlds. Um, so I think it's great that there are so many of you out here today, um, uh, who are willing to give up an hour of your time on a Tuesday evening to, to sit in and listen to, to someone, talk about research I think is, is actually really, uh, really humbling actually. Cos I probably wouldn't have done that when I was a medical student. So that's so, so that's really good. Um, so thank you for attending. Um, I'm, and I'm hoping you'll be able to get something out of, out of the talk. Um, so roughly I'm gonna break the da er, break down the talk to, um, three key questions and that is what is research, why do research and how to do research? I'm gonna spend about five or 10 minutes talking about the first two questions. The what and the, why? Uh, and I'm gonna spend a bit more time talking about the how, because I think that again is the one that often gets neglected and sort of the, it's what sort of gets picked up normally, uh, as you go on and do, er, research, uh, by gaining experience. So, um, I think I, II just thought I'd spend a little bit more time, uh, focusing on that aspect of research this evening and hopefully that you'll, you'll find that a little bit more helpful. So, before I start, I want to find out a little bit more, uh, about yourselves. So, um, I'm just gonna put up a poll now and all it is, uh, is asking what your grade is and that just allows me to sort of better gauge what, who, you know, you know, in the audience tonight, who, who, who I'm talking to. Ok. Yeah. Yeah. So mostly medical students, a couple of foundation doctors, a couple of co trainee doctors in JC FS. Perfect. Yeah. So I think as I say, so with research, the earlier you start the better. And I think, you know, for the majority of people here of medical students, um I think that's an excellent time to get started in research. Um As we'll talk about um in just a second, brilliant. So we'll start off with the first question, which is what is research. Um And so research is basically finding answers to question and, and it, and it's that simple, but what makes it slightly more complicated uh is that there are many ways to answer your questions? OK. So um there are lots of questions that we can ask about um why we do the things we do in clinical medicine. And the way that we answer these questions is by designing a robust uh by designing and performing and carrying out robust research. So there are many ways to answer your questions. Um and each methods, method of answering your questions has their own strengths and limitations. Some methods might be more robust than others in terms of evidence, but each have their place in contributing to the overall body of evidence. So for example, if you wanted to investigate, for instance, a rare disease and you have a, you know, understandably smaller sample size, this is where sort of things like case reports and case series are helpful. Uh You can't, if you have a, a um n number of about 10 patients. Um you know, it's impossible to design like a big cohort study or design a big randomized controlled trial to test for any intervention. You have to start off by collecting and sort of understanding the literature a bit better. And the way you do that is by publishing case reports and case series. And indeed, you know, over time, that is what the observational cohort studies and the randomized controlled trials are built on. So just because case series and case reports aren't the most robust ways of evidence. They are essentially what the b they are, the building blocks of what uh larger observational cohort studies and randomized controlled trials uh build upon and that's how they design the studies. So the next question I want to answer is, is, is why do research and, and I think this is a really important question to ask yourself because I think there are 3D D3 reasons. The first is that good research takes time and you're gonna, if you want to carry out good research. You're gonna be investing a lot of time into it. The second reason is because your time is so limited, like clinical work is really, really busy, right? It's really heavy. We don't appreciate that because we're always just surrounded by medics, but you spend so much of your time in your hospital doing clinical research, uh sorry, clinical work and on calls that you, you, you end up doing a lot of your sort of research in your, in your own free time. So you're gonna be investing a lot of time into it and your time is limited. Um And the third thing to consider is that actually research is becoming less desirable to do. Um And that's because um for various reasons, um so funding is a big issue but also, you know, people are just getting more burnt, burnt out um doing clinical medicine and that just means, you know, a lot of the time that you, you have to sort of spend doing research, you know, you otherwise just spend sort of trying to recover from, from doing your clinical work. Um So it's a question that you have to sort of, you know, ask yourself, you know, why you're doing research. And in my experience, there are usually uh sort of three different categories of people uh or, or, or at least reasons for doing research. Um So I'm just gonna put up another poll um out of interest looking at why you want to do research. So the three categories usually are people who are just genuinely interested in research. Um, people who are just doing research purely because of career progression and that's absolutely fair enough. Um, and there are people who are genuinely interested in both. Um, and, yeah, just looking at the, er, responses. Yeah. So most people want to do both. Um, but yeah, actually a good, good amount of people as well about a third um are doing it for career progression, which is like, absolutely fair enough. Uh Because that was sort of where I started as well. Uh I had no zero interest in research um really was only ticking the boxes uh for career progression. But I just thought the more that I did, the more I developed an interest and now I probably think I'm sitting probably around the both uh camp. So it is an important question to ask yourself. And I think I, so I think research is, is, is a really important thing to do. Um And I think realistically in the medical world, I think there are three ways really that you can stand out and that's either by doing leadership, either by doing teaching or by or, or by doing research. Um And if you've had a look at the um scoring matrixes for so the S FP or core training or SS T applications, you have to have a little bit of all three. Um But it's helpful to have your particular niche and what you're particularly good at. And I think research helps with your applications. I think it ma makes you a better doctor. Um And also I think it opens up a lot of opportunities for uh collaboration and friendships and things like that from conferences. So I think there's a lot of good reasons to do research. Um And a lot of them tick the boxes for career progression and help you stand out, which I think is really important uh in this day and age. So I'm gonna spend a little bit more time now talking about the how bit of to do research and I'm gonna break it down into three rules for success uh in research, I'm gonna go through talk, talk about them each um individually. So the first rule I think for success is that I think good research takes time. Um and it always takes longer than you think there's no room for shortcuts and you have to be realistic uh with your time. So what do I mean by that? So this is what it looked like for me going into research when I first started uh doing it. So I was 1/5 year. So just to set the scene a little bit, I was 1/5 year medical student um in Edinburgh. I had never done research up to this point. I had never done an intercalated degree, er was not interested in research. I knew I wanted to do cardiology, heard that it was quite competitive. So, um but didn't really sort of get involved in research. Um It wasn't until my fifth year uh in my sse like a student selected component where we were forced to do research. So we had to pick someone approach a supervisor uh and carry out a research project. And I thought, well, this would be a great time for me to get some, uh, you know, some points uh for my application. Uh, you know, I thought it was just gonna, you know, find a project, you know, do a bit of research, get published. Uh And it'll be all good for me to apply for core training. Um And so that was my expectation. Um, and this is what the reality looked a little bit more like. Um, so this research project that I started in fifth year, er, didn't end up getting published till, er, I was in I MT one. So that was actually 2023. And, um, that, and, and, and it just shows that actually there are a lot of things here that we don't consider uh when we're thinking about our research project because, you know, finding the right supervisor, finding the right project that takes some time, don't really think about it. Planning your project takes longer than you think as well. Data collection always takes twice as long as you think. Um, and it's really boring. But, but, but you end up sort of doing it anyways and then the analyses, you, you, you, once you collect your data, you get on to do the analysis, which I thought was gonna be like simple X LSPs S but turns out my supervisor wanted some, you know, stuff that was a little bit more advanced. So we had to get like a medical statistician on board. And of course COVID happened that over this time period as well. And so everything got put on hold then. Um and then when we did finally get back to write it up, er, present it, submit it for publications, have like two or three revisions and finally get accepted for publications. That's about five years. So, you know, just thinking about what that means uh for yourself, er, and how long that takes to, you know, start from scratch and get a good research publication. That's sort of the time frame that you'd be looking at. Obviously five years is a long time and obviously COVID is, is, you know, that was something that was definitely unexpected. But even without that, I think it would have still taken at least a year and so good research takes time. Secondly, um don't take shortcuts. Um So I'm gonna go out here and say it's not hard to publish right? There are journals out there, uh who will accept anything for a fee, right? You can have the worst research project and still be published and that's fine. But why you shouldn't do that is because there are a couple of reasons. So, first of all, it costs a lot of money. So the way that predatory journals work is that, you know, they accept all kinds of, um, academic research. Um, but the caveat is that you, you've got to pay a lot of money for it. The second reason is that once it's published, it remains on public domain forever. And, um, academics can tell, um, they can tell if you've published in a dodgy research journal. And I, you know, if it's in your CV, if you get Googled, if you look, get looked up on PUBMED, um, you know, II think looking at someone with sort of 10 dodgy publications probably reflects worse on you than it does better. Um, because you've paid a lot of, because it just means you've paid a lot of money to publish, uh, not good research. Um, and I think academics can tell. So, um, good research takes time and, you know, there really isn't a way around it, there isn't a shortcut around it. Um, other than, you know, paying lots of money for it. But even then, um, you know, uh, it, it, it, it, it, it doesn't, definitely doesn't benefit you in the long run because it just remains there in public domain forever. The third thing I would say about timing is, is, is definitely just to be realistic with your time. So I've um screenshot of the um er scoring. Um bit of the application for core surgical training, er and for the top, for the, for the max max amount of scoring you should have deli either delivered uh or won the prize in the oral presentation er or be a first author publication. So if you're a medical student right now, think about what I was saying about how long it takes to get research done and think about how long it takes for you to um apply for your um core training. So it's always good to look several years ahead. Um And, and definitely factor that into your uh the way that you can maximize your scoring. Because if you're not interested in research and you just want to do it for the point scoring, then it may be that you don't just don't do research and sort of focus maximizing your score elsewhere. Uh Because as I say, good research takes time and if you've only got sort of less than a year to start from scratch, realistically, it's gonna be quite difficult to get the points in order uh you know, for, for your applications. So uh definitely uh have a think about w when you're starting research and when you need your outputs by. So when you need your publications by um and have that in mind and consider whether this is the right time to be doing research or whether you can invest uh that much time and effort to be doing it and achieve a publication before the stage that you need to uh need, need to get these publications by. So, moving on to the second rule is to the second tip for um doing good research is to surround yourself with the best. Um And what I mean by that is identifying successful academic institutions and aligning yourself with them by identifying successful mentors. And we'll talk about in a second, why that's so important. And thirdly, I put in quotation marks stock, successful peers. And what that just means is identifying role models and they might be people who are in a similar grade to yourself but uh have been really successful for whatever reason or it could be someone that's slightly further down the line, maybe a core trainee, maybe a special specialty registrar um who has been very successful. Um And basically using them as a role model and learning from their careers and seeing how you can improve yourself. Um So I'm gonna show you this slide here. Um talking about identifying successful academic institutions and the number one benchmark for determining a successful academic institution is how much grant funding they achieve. Um and how much money they're able to pull from either government funding bodies, private charities or um pharmaceutical companies to fund the research that they're doing. So I actually pulled this map off uh from the British Heart Foundation and so in the cardiology world, the British Heart Foundation is a major sort of funding body, uh charitable funding body uh for a lot of the research that happens in the UK. So when I was interested in research, I looked at this map and looked at, you know, so, so looking at the map, um the larger the circle, the la, the more amount of uh funding that they were awarded uh by the BHF. So I looked at this map and I thought to myself, if you want to do good research, you have to be in a place that produces good research. And the only way that you can produce good research is if you have the uh money to carry out research. And so this is basically directly linked to how, you know, how much research gets done. Uh And so I've highlighted all of the big circles uh in the ma on the map. And I, you know, I would say that academic um academia is quite different to clinical medicine because in clinical medicine, wherever you train, whether it's ad GH, whether it's a tertiary, tertiary hospital, whether it's a big city, whether it's a small city, you roughly get a similar experience of clinical research, uh clinical uh medicine. And you come out on the other side being just as um uh capable of, of doing clinical medicine, but academia is a whole different world. Um And it's definitely very pretentious. Um And it's definitely uh very focused and very heavy, heavily focused on uh you know, cities that have sort of big academic institutions and universities associated with them. Um And by aligning yourself with these academic institutions that is the best way to, to sort of get aligned with successful mentors, uh which I'll talk about um in the next slide. So, uh the last thing I wanted to say about this slide was that it doesn't really, I mean, this is one part of the consideration of where you want to be carrying out research. Obviously, you want to think about other things as well, such as um there are certain centers around the UK which have particular subspecialty interests that you might be interested in. Um And so, you know, seeking out these institutions that closely align with your, what your interests are in research and what uh you think uh you want to do uh in uh in research and what interests you uh is, is also really important and they might not even be on this map. I mean, this is for cardiology, right? So, um I'm guessing most people here are aspiring surgeons. So you want to look, look up for yourself, you know, WW what the grant funding bodies are and where the grant funding is going. And if you follow the grant funding money, you're not too far off where good research is being carried out. Um So definitely have a look, it's gonna take a bit of research, a bit of asking around. Uh, but find out what works for you in the surgical world. Um The next thing I would say is to identify successful mentors. So, um these, this is a table that I put together myself thinking about um the supervision that I've had before in the past. So you've got green flags and you've got red flags. Um And I think finding the right mentor is just like a good relationship. Um You know, you've got to have something that's mutually beneficial. So it's no good if, uh you know, you don't, it's no good if um you're, you're doing all the work but not getting credit for it. Um But equally, you don't want to be sort of handheld your whole life cos you know, how, how, how are you gonna, um, pick up the skills if, if you don't get stuck in and, and sort of, uh have the freedom to do to carry out your own research. So, the couple of green flags that I think about when I'm thinking about successful mentors is that um they have to have a track record of recent publications and I put this in caps because tons of people have done research at some point in their careers, especially consultants. When you look at consultants, everyone will have done some research. Um but not many people are still active in research. So there's a big difference. So someone might have, for example, 50 PUBMED publications or maybe even 100. But if they were all from like the 19 nineties of the two, early, two thousands and they've got nothing from the last, you know, five years and obviously they're not, not the right person. So on PUBMED, you can actually sort their publications by, um, year and you can see how many p they publications they have had in the last couple of years. And that's one good way of looking at it. The second thing is looking at their funding record as well. So it was going back to what I was saying about good research takes time, but it also takes money. Uh And if you follow where the funding goes, that's usually where research gets carried out. And if they've got track record of funding, uh it means that they're on to something because uh the funding bodies have agreed to give them money to carry out their research. And if the funding bodies agree to give them money to carry out research, it means it's research that they think will have an impact and that will get published and, and that's where you follow, that's, you know, where that's where the money is and that's where you want to follow. The third thing is thinking about tracker, a track record of, of successful uh phd or MD students. Um So the most successful academics will have had uh plenty of phd students under them who have successfully completed their p hds. Um, and that just means, um, two things. The first is that they've got, er, experience in supervising, um, students. Um, and the second thing is that, um, there are people that are interested in doing their research with them and that's always a good sign as well. The next is, you know, making sure that they've got time for you. So there's no good finding, you know, the biggest name in, I don't know, plastic surgery for instance. Uh, but, you know, they're obviously so busy with their clinical, er, you know, er, commitments or their academic commitments that they just don't have the time for you. So I think when, when, you know, meeting a mentor, I think it is, or, or a potential supervisor, I think it's really important to ask, you know, how much, uh, have a good feel of, of, of how much time they have, um, for you. And I think that's a fair question to ask. Um, you know, meeting a potential supervisor, um, is thinking, look, I'm interested in doing this particular research. It's gonna be doing, th, er, I'm gonna be doing this, I've never had any experience doing this in the past, so I'm gonna need a bit of help. Would that be ok? You know, and I think it's worth asking explicitly and finally, sometimes, you know, it's just about getting along and it's just, um, you know, seeing whether you click with both the supervisor uh themselves or whether that's with their wider uh researcher research group as well. Um Couple of red flags. So, um, does not reply to emails. I know this is not a blanket rule. II know lots of good supervisors actually who are quite terrible at email. Um, but it is just one indicator of uh how much time they'll have for you. Um, some people are just bad at emails and when you actually approach them in, in person, they, they, you know, they, they do have time for you, but you know, that it's just one indication. Uh the second is, um you know, promises you quick publications and I, and I think um II feel like in my experience, registrars are quite guilty of that. I think a lot of registrars uh promise to get, you know, audits and quips and stuff like that uh published. I think that rarely happens in my experience. I think good research um happens when you really take the time to put in the work. Um I mean, if it was easy, everyone would do it and get quick publications, right? But, you know, good research takes time as I say. So, um you know, if someone promises you to, you know, a publication in, in less than a year or a couple of months, I mean, I think that's fair to, to, to raise a bit of suspicion on that. Um Unrealistic expectations is the next thing in the, in the table. And I, and I think, um, it's important that your supervisor recognizes that you are, you know, um, a med, either a med student or a foundation doctor or core trainee, all of which have, you know, an enormous amount of, uh, uh, time, you know, investment required, uh, outside of research. And, um, if the supervisor doesn't appreciate that you, you might just end up sort of piling on too much workload. Uh And uh you know, obviously that's not a good thing because you, you need to be able to juggle um your sort of um med school or clinical uh work together with your academic work. So, um again, that's something that you could ask sort of say quite explicitly when you, when you meet your supervisor as well, having realistic expectations of what you'll be able to achieve uh within the time frame that you have. And the last thing is basically being ambiguous. And what I mean by ambiguous is um not being able to tell you definitively what sort of credit that you'll get for, you know, for, for the research that you're doing. Um And I know it's, you always have to be a little bit tactful about this cos it can get quite political but thinking about uh authorship on, on publications. I think certainly when I first started research, um II did sort of explicitly say my aim of doing research is to get a publication and I will work extremely hard, you know, do whatever I need to do to be able to publish. But that is my aim, is this a feasible research project that I can work on that will result in a publication. And if they can't tell you that or if they can't tell you whether or not you can be a coauthor on the paper if you put in the hard work. Um Then again, I think that's a red flag. Uh Just before we move on, Doctor Chung, we've had a question from one of our participants called Kim. And you've, you've done a great job answering some of this question already in terms of key qualities and signs of a research supervisor. But do you have any specific tips when your aim is to try and get to publications quicker in a short time, for example, an equal to look out for? Yeah. So, II think it, so thinking about the time frame. Um a lot of uh so when you approach a supervisor, if he's a very established academic, it's likely that he's going to have multiple projects running at the same time in the pipeline. And there'll be some projects which are just at the start of their, you know, of their lifeline, if so to speak. And um some that are sort of reaching towards the end and you, I kind of ideally want to find one that's in the middle, uh, where by, it's not too far along that you, you don't just come in and sort of trans, uh, you don't have enough time to make an impact on the research project to get yourself on a publication, but you don't want to, you might not want to have it too early as well if time is a big factor for you because then it's gonna take a long time for you to get published. Uh And you might not re meet these sort of um deadlines er that you need to, to, to get your point scoring. So the ideal bit is to get a pre a research project that's already up and running. Um And you jump on that and you put in the hard work for that and then you get published and I think it's worth saying that to your supervisor. II think I think, you know, I think it's important to be honest with your supervisor and saying, look, this is my situation. I want to, you know, my aim is to be a core surgical trainee. And for this, I need a, you know, one coauthor public or one first author publication. Are there any projects that are feasible for me to get on, get involved in? And obviously say that I am willing to put in the hard work. Uh Is there anything within this time frame, any projects within your pipeline where I can feasibly contribute to? Um that will result in me being a co author on the paper and I think that's fair to ask. Um That's definitely fair to ask, especially, I mean, definitely say it only if you do have the time and the sort of effort to, to put in. Um But I think it's a fair question to ask uh and to sort of explain your situation. Uh and, and sort of good, good supervisors will have multiple projects in their pipeline and they might be able to direct you to one project over another. Um If you're looking at sort of AAA shorter time frame. Uh So, yeah, I hope that answers the question. Um My third point about finding, um, the right people is preparing to be blue ticked. So what I mean by blue ticked is that prepared to be ignored. Um And so looking for a good supervisor, so good supervisors tend to be very busy. Um And this is just a selection of emails that I didn't get a reply to just in the last year. So, um, uh, you know, I think you really have to be very intentional about it. Um I think you have to email lots of people. You'll email about five and get maybe two replies or maybe 10 and get three. So it's like, um, don't be scared to email multiple people, um because you will get blue tick at some point in your academic research careers. And if in fact on the bottom left of the screen is actually a linkedin um text box and there was a professor uh in cardiology that I really wanted to work with but was just terrible at replying emails. So I sent him, I think two or three emails um obviously being very polite and courteous uh but no reply. And II noticed he was very um he was very active on linkedin. So he was like sharing lots of stuff on linkedin. So I was like, this is how I'm gonna approach this guy. And I actually subscribed for like a premium linkedin account. Uh Like I did a free trial uh just so I could. So I created a profile, subscribed for a premium linkedin and the premium linkedin allows you to sort of direct message people that you're not connected with. Uh And that's what I did. Um And now I'm doing some work with this guy. So, so I think it's just being intentional about uh not, not, not being afraid to put yourself out there. Um Have, you know, all a lot of the emails are similar so you can use a similar template. Um And as long as you're polite, I, you know, I don't think people have, you know, too much issue with you just emailing sort of a couple of people uh that you're interested in working with. Um So don't be disheartened uh but be prepared to be blue ticked. Um You, so someone will reply at some point, um I have had people reply sort of six months down the line uh when I'd already been involved in a different research project. So, so, so don't, don't, don't take it to heart and don't worry about it too much. Someone will reply at some point and, and my last point um on associating yourself with the best is make sure that you're stalking successful peers. So there, there are two kinds of people that I, that I stalk, right. So, um there are people who are at a similar stage to myself and I've done really well. Uh and I want to see what they've done to make themselves this successful. And the second type of person I stalk is someone who's a couple of years ahead of me. So, uh maybe they're a senior registrar. Uh And I want to look at their career to get some inspiration on how I can get to where they are. Uh And what steps have they taken to be able to get to the place that they want. They, they are and where I want to be. So I think this is where um social media becomes an, a, a really effective tool, uh w especially when used correctly. So there are many ways that you can go about doing this. So, for instance, just uh two weeks ago, I was at a conference, I saw a very successful er, senior registrar, er, who was doing a phd, give a really good talk um at a conference uh but never heard of this guy before. So I, what did, what did I do? I II looked them up on the GMC Medical Register just to see where they were working. Uh And what stage of training they were at. Um I then looked them up on Google. Um And the things that we're looking, I was looking at are either linkedin Research Gate, pubmed and Twitter. Um And if you, you know, successful academics are out there on the internet because they publish because they give talks because they give presentations at conferences or they've got industry collaboration, good academics will be easily searchable um online. And so, um what, what I did was I, you know, I looked up this person on their research Gate that the, you know, their PUBMED, what were their recent publications? Research Gate, the advantage of Research Gate is it, it gives you their conference um uh presentations as well, not just their publications, which I think is helpful. And I think linkedin gives you a good idea of their uh the stages of their research career. Uh And that's something that you can look at as well. Um And then just thinking about Twitter as well and, and, and, and, and, and just looking at, you know, sometimes they've got a bio or if they've got a um or just looking at their tweets what, what they've recently published or presented on sometimes isn't on Research Gate but is on Twitter. So, um you know, both with, with both Twitter and linkedin, you can connect with them as well. So, um you know, and, and, you know, I think usually people uh are really receptive to being approached by people uh as long as you're genuine. And um you know, yy, you show that you're interested and you've got a very defined question for them. So, you know, you can explain your situation. I am a so, and so this is my current position. I am interested in this kind of research. Um, and II noticed, uh, whilst you were at a conference you were, you know, presenting research on this topic, which I found really interesting, you know, I would love to get involved as well or know how you came to get involved in that sort of research. Like nine times out of 10 people are like more than happy to, to help and point you in the right direction. And even if you don't reach out to them, I think just by looking at the, looking at what their research path their careers, er, were, is sometimes enough to get you some new ideas or show you what to do, um, you know, to get to where you want to be. And I think, uh, II, you know, I do this all the time, like unashamedly, I just search someone up. Um, and, and, and just look at what they've, they've done and, and, and try to sort of see what I can do to improve myself. Uh, and I think, you know, definitely look at a lot of different careers because different, many different ways to go about in a, in a, a career in academia. Um, and so looking at many different types of careers, definitely opens up your mind to different ways that you can get involved and, uh, different ways that you can be successful. The last thing is, is thinking about um your specialist societies as well. So for me, that's the two up in the top left in the black box. So that's the B CS and the BG BJC A. Um and conferences and societies are a great way to meet potential supervisors and collaborators. Uh And, and, you know, just to find a lot of successful people, cos you know, successful people gather at conferences. So it's almost like a, a melting pot of successful people and you want to associate with them, you want to mingle with them, you want to know what makes them so successful and you want to emulate what they've done, looking at their careers. Um But also you want to, you know, meet them in person as well and, and, and speak to them and, and ask them questions, you know, by virtue of you being there in the conference shows that you are a committed person. And so I find that actually approaching researchers and academics in conferences, uh, is, is so much more conducive actually, er, than you cold calling and emailing people. Um, because you could just be anyone emailing them from the comfort of your homes. But the fact that you've made an effort to come down to a conference, especially if you, you know, if you're a medical student, I think, to me that shows that you're committed and you are ambitious, uh, And you want to get stuff done and that's the kind of people that I would want to work with. And that's the kind of people that successful academics would want to work with as well. So, you know, look at what you're interested in, find your subspecialty niche um and attend their events and attend their conferences. Um and mingle with successful people. Um What I would say as well is, is don't be afraid to approach speakers at conferences. Cos that was something that I was always very intimidated by when I was a medical student uh presenting at a conference. Um You know, as I say, people are always quite receptive at conferences and they're usually in, you know, very good moods in, in, in conferences. So I, you know, don't worry too much, you know, you, you, you don't tend to meet these people outside of a conference um because they work in maybe a different academic institution. So, like you just have to shoot your shot and just ask you know, approach them and talk to them. Uh There, there's no sort of real way around it. Um And finally, I just want to talk about um how you can make yourself more marketable. Um And what that, what I mean by that is having the right attributes for research, being able to find the right resources to build your skills. And number three, applying for the right positions. So I'll talk about what all of this means. So I've made another table here. OK? Of um three things which I think are uh essential um to be able to carry out good research, personal qualities. So you have to have the right attitude, you have to have the right skills and you've got to have the right qualifications. And I think in that order. So most important being, if you think about it as a pyramid, attitudes being at the bottom of the pyramid and then building up to in the middle skills and then qualifications is a nice thing to have but not entirely essential uh to have uh for success for, for successful research, especially, you know, when you're in early on stage in your career. So the attitudes that I think you have to have when, when doing research is you have to be able to dedicate time to research. And I'm gonna keep saying this, but good research takes time. And II remember when I um first approached um a supervisor to do my SSE five project. He was a very sort of well established cardiology professor and he was very intense, very intense sort of guy. And, um I met this guy for the first time. Uh And the first thing he asked me was, what do you think you can contribute to our research group? Um And that's a, you know, that's a really scary question to have cos I was, you know, I was 1/5 year medical student and I was, you know, II remember that very clearly, actually, you know, what can you do to contribute to our research group? Um And, you know, the one thing that I thought of that I had, that I had that none of them had was that I had loads of time, right? So I could dedicate lots and lots of time to research. Um And so I said, you know, there, you know, II can do what, you know, I can do whatever you want. I've got lots of time. Uh And that's how I think I can be helpful. Um, you know, to the team. And II actually think he was quite impressed by that answer because, you know, it, it's something that you have that, you know, lots of supervisors and phd students and red, you know, cardio, you know, registrars don't have, you know, if you're a medical student, you, you do have more time than, than people working full time. Uh cli clinical jobs and you can do a lot of things that they can't because you've got the time to do it. So that's number one. you have to be able to dedicate the time. Um Secondly, you have to be able to dedicate the effort as well. Um And I think it's, it's, it's very difficult because uh you, you need to know what your eventual output is before you dedicate your effort. Um And once, you know, so that's why I was saying, talking about, you know, being very clear at the beginning, what the end goal is and what the outputs are. Um because if you know what that is, that makes it all the more worthwhile and you feel like you're, you know, you'll happily invest the time in if you know that this is gonna end up in a publication. So, um you know, be prepared to, to dedicate the effort, but make sure that your effort is going towards, you know, a right sort of course as well. And I think willingness, so moving down, willingness to learn as well is really, you know, a key attribute. I think there's always more to learn uh in research and there are a lot of skills um er, that you, that you have to pick up uh from an early stage in your career. And I think being able to soak that in I is really important and I think just being a generally sort of personable person and, and, and getting along with the team uh and meeting the research fellows, you know, uh I II certainly got along with, with, with the teams that I've worked in and, and I think that's made a huge difference um because it just makes it a much more, you know, ha fun environment to, to work in. Um And you know, it, yeah, it definitely makes, it definitely impacts on the productivity um thinking about skills then. So I sort of split this into three key categories. So either you've got some experience doing some prospective work, either some experience with retrospective work or having some experience doing some basic science work depending on what you're interested in. So prospective work is like helping out with a trial and you can help with screening patients, you can help manage the trial database, you can help recruit patients and those are things that you can do without any sort of specialist knowledge at all. Um And then with retrospective work, you know, you've got your sys uh systematic reviews and you've got your meta analyses as well. Again, that's a skill that you have to pick up. Um if you want to do retrospective work. Um And then basic science, I say really only if you want to do basic science. So I don't do a lot of basic science and I'm not that interested in basic science. So I don't actually have any basic science skills. But if that's the path that you want to go down, then you wanna start learning how, you know, there, you know, it's a whole different world. You gotta learn how you work in a lab. Uh You know, um you know, the techniques that they have in the lab like rest and blotting or mass spectometry. You know, it's a whole different world and that's uh that's a set of skills that you'd have to learn if you, that's what you wanted to go in. And finally, I'll just quickly talk about, you know, qualifications as well. So again, this is, remember, this is at the top of the pyramid. So it's nice to have but not entirely essential I feel. So um you can get an intercalated BSC or M SE, you can do an NIH R good clinical practice certificate and I'd highly recommend everyone interested in doing research to do this and you can Google it. Um It's a short sort of 12 hour job and having that good clinical practice certificate actually opens up a lot of doors because if you want to, for example, get involved in prospective work. Um part of you joining that delegation log of working in that prospective group to screen and recruit patients, um their research group is gonna want you to have a NIH R good clinical practice certificate because um that's what they would have put in the study protocol that everyone handling the data has a good clinical practice certificate. So that's what I did when I was at that stage and I've definitely just used it for every other project that I've been in. Um, you can do the NIH R Associate P I Scheme and you can Google that, but I wouldn't spend too much time talking about that and statistic courses as well because if you've got statistics instantly you are marketable. Um, you know, medics were not good at statistics, most of us, um you know, highly successful academics, they're good at interpreting statistics, but they're no good at actually carrying out the statistics. So if you have that you instantly twice as you know, marketable and attractive as a as something you can bring to the team. Um And then I will finally just talking about just very briefly about the um finding the right resources as well. Um So a couple of these are things that I have found to be very helpful. So cardio webinars BJC, a podcasts on Spotify, optimize interviews and you know, yourselves as well. Being here today at, at the NST S talks um is about finding the right resources to build on the skills that you have uh or pick up new skills and that makes yourself more marketable as well. So for, I'll just use one example. So I used um a podcast a lot for um in fact doing uh that it was a podcast that did cardio that, that basically dissect cardiology papers every week and that really helped me with critical appraisal and literature reviews and things like that. So, um that's just one example of how you can, you know, use resources to build on your skills. Um And the last bit is I just wanna talk about applying for the right positions as well. Um And I think this could be a talk uh you know, all on its own actually. But um you know, there are different places, you know, having an academic position really helps you carry out your research. So firstly, time is a big factor. Having an academic position allows you to have some time off clinical duties to carry out research. Um The second thing is it, it, it gives you a budget as well. Um And you know, doing presenting, going to conferences, presenting all of this takes money and, you know, having a proper position helps with that. And I think finally, just having a title as well instantly makes you more marketable as well because if you have an S FP, for example, um you know, uh that shows that you're, you know, really, you know, dedicated, you know, you're, you're excellent for your stage of training and that you've had some research experience. And I think in a world where, you know, the supervisors are sifting through, you know, uh you know, lots of people diff different people approaching them for different things. If you have a title like a, like an S FP for instance, that instantly makes you more marketable. So, um, have a think about that and whether that's the right thing for you to do, um, because I'm an A CFI will speak very briefly about this as well. Um, so it's a three year NIH R funded position. Um, and there are positions in all different specialties. Um, if you are successful in applying for an ACF you then get 25% of your time to do research. Um And again, that's having, you know, time off away from clinical duties, no, on calls, no nights, no weekends where you can just focus on doing research and that makes you much more productive. Um The each ACF is a little bit different depending on where you do your ACF. Um But roughly all ACF S will have a research training program. So talks and workshops and things like that to build on your skills that we were talking about. And a lot of them fund Mres and MSC S as well that you can take, which would otherwise cost you a lot of money, which is good. And we talked about the ACF budget and money for presenting at conferences. So again, that's, that makes it more um feasible to do from a financial point of view. Er But also, um I think the big draw is that it's a run through, it comes with the national training number. So that means it's run through. Uh And that means you don't have to worry about applying for ST three or ST four if you're a medic um for that. And so you can solely focus on just doing research and not worry about sort of picking up silly points for Q I PS and like VT E audits, um and just focus on doing good research because, you know, you don't have to put in another application because you're already running through and then the finally, probably um AAA less sort of thing. But I also think it's quite important is that you get to choose your own rotations and your own hospitals as well, which I think is just a nice thing because um with the traditional sort of rotational training, um I've been able to sort of say I wanted to stay in Manchester Royal Infirmary for all of this year because, and that's the big center because that's where I'm carrying out research and because your salary is paid for by NIH R and not NHS England, you are basically super numerary to um everyone else that's on the ROTA. So, um you know, that's great. Uh You know, you, you, you, you can choose where you want to do what jobs you want to do and um you just end up being an extra. So from a clinical point of view, an extra pair of hands, which is always good. Um And then thinking about applying for the ACF again, I'm only gonna speak about this briefly because I think this could be a whole talk on its own. Um, applying for an ACF so this can be at any time during ST 12 or three. So I applied for it at the end of ST one going to ST two. a lot of people think you can only apply it when you're in fy going into ST one. That's not true. Um, there are lots of ST two and ST three positions as well that you can apply for. Um And there are essentially three things to, to know about it, timing wise, it uh usually the um applications usually open before the traditional um application rounds. Uh So, so if let's say CST starts in, you know, October, then ACF applications usually start the month before that. So September, so that's just good to know. Secondly, with the A um ACF applications, you've got blank space questions and these are what's used to score you for a short listing uh in, in interviews and each of the questions are slightly more are slightly different er in each academic institution. But the questions that will always be there are presentations, publications, teaching audit, you know, describing a research project, uh commitment to specialty and why you want to do the ACF So for me, I prepared a 10 page uh word document sort of font size 12, 4000 words of uh you know, answering all these questions. Uh And so it, it, it does take time as well. Um, but that's what gets you the interviews and when you were in the interview, um, my interview panel was three different ACF specialty leads with one overall ACF lead and a lay person as well. Um, the stations will be describing a piece of research that you've seen or. Well, they'll give you a research paper and you've got to, er, present it and analyze it. Um, and you've got to present it to a scientific audience as well as to a lay audience and you've got to speak about your previous research experience and why you want the ACF as well. So similar to your uh blank space questions. So I just want to um finish really by, you know, showing you what I've done thus far to get to where I am now. Uh And, you know, I would say I don't really see myself as an academic. I never have really done so because I didn't really do research uh until I was in, you know, fifth year of medicine. Um I've done no research prior to that. I did not intercalate, I did not apply for an A FP or an S FP because I did not think I was good enough to do it. I did not initially apply for an ACF as well from FY going into um ST one because I didn't think I was good enough again. Um I was only sort of quite heavily encouraged by a mentor of mine to apply. Um And actually you don't lose anything from applying for it. Um And it's almost just like a practice run of your interviews that you're gonna do for your actual C SS T or I MT anyways. So, I mean, you've got nothing to lose other than time really, uh by, uh you know, preparing for the blank space questions and trying to um go for an interview. Uh And so I've been sort of moderately successful with my sse um sort of put in quite a lot of hard work to lead my own project. Um But as, as you may remember, it took a long time for sort of the outputs to come out. So, um I ended up joining the ACF sort of later than people normally would in ST two. But that's fine. I mean, I am where I am now. Uh And, you know, um it's helped me to do more research, which is good. Um And set you up for a future sort of higher research degree as well. So, um and, you know, the last thing to say about that is just that there are many different ways that people get into research. It's not as um linear as clinical medicine where you've got the simple sort of um you know, uh fy core training ST consultant. I mean, people go about research in different ways. They start at different times. They come in, they come out, it's, you know, everyone does things a little bit differently. So, um don't worry about where you are now, think about where you want to be and then, you know, work, work, work your way towards that. And that's what I did. So just to summarize um the first rule is that good research takes time, uh it always takes longer than you think that it'll take and think about um how this fits in with your career ambitions and your goals uh in terms of applications. Secondly, you want to surround yourself with the best. So, thinking about the right institutions, thinking about the right mentors, thinking about um associating yourself in the right conferences and specialist societies. And finally, you wanna make yourself marketable. Um thinking about how you can, you know, develop, have the attitude to, to do research, develop, pick up new skills and develop your um research skills um as well as gaining some qualifications um along the way uh as well. So those would be my top three tips on um carrying out research. Uh I'd be happy to take any questions now, if there are any um if not, well, I'll give it like 10 sec, 1020 seconds, but if not, um I am on um contactable by email or by um social media as well. So, Twitter is what I normally use or X as it's now called. Um OK, so I I've got a question here. Uh what are simple. So the question is what are simple projects, types of studies that you would recommend for medical students? Um So I think this would be a good question to ask your supervisor because it just depends on what is available uh At the time. Uh I think you have the first thing to think about is whether or not you want to do a prospective or retrospective um study. Uh And thinking about how you can develop the skills in each area to build up towards um that particular project. Um in terms of simple projects, I think, I mean, it's difficult to say what's simple because uh I think all good research takes time and I think it takes effort as well. So that's definitely something to speak about with your um supervisor because it's hard for me to say what exactly would be a simple project. Um And it depends on what skills you have as well, how much time you have and how much time you have to get to where you want to be. Um So I don't have a very clear cut answer for that. But um I think definitely something to speak about with your supervisor and again, just being explicit about, you know, this is your time frame, this is what you want to achieve. Um But I think simple things that I've, I've done in the past have been um simple data collection projects um with a very clear specified um end goal. Um And if I sort of helping out with data collection helped to get me on a coauthor publication. So that was something simple to do. Another simple thing that I did was I helped screening for a study. Um So I just basically looked through um a couple of clinical notes every day uh for a um study that they were carrying out, um and just highlighted any sort of potential uh patients. And I thought that was quite an easy thing to do. I didn't need to have any specialist knowledge. Uh It was very well appreciated by the team. Uh and I ended up with a coauthor publication on, on, on that, on that um paper as well. So, um, you know, it's just about speaking to your supervisor and finding what's, what's right for you. Um Cool. If there are no questions, uh happy to happy to end it there. Lovely. Thank you so much, Doctor Chunk, er, excellent talk. Um If anyone has any further questions, I have dropped, er, Doctor Chung's um email address in the, in the comments, boxer, in the messages. Um If there's any questions about the series, um I can be contacted on the email address there as well. Uh And just to remind everybody about our upcoming further three talks, I'm just gonna switch over. Um, bear with me just a second. Um, so the upcoming talk. So we have, er, this Thursday, we have a talk on the academic language. How do I understand a paper given by Doctor George Esworthy, um, who's a current specialized foundation year two doctor. Um, I think you've given an excellent talk on this topic. Um, looking at the grades of the people attending today. I think it would be a really good one, for everyone to attend, er, following that. We've got a further talk next Thursday. Um, and that's to do with statistics. Uh, again, that should be a really good talker by someone quite experienced in big data for statistics. And then we're gonna end the series um, the following Thursday on the 25th of June, um with doctor with Doctor Anthony Howard. Uh, again, he will talk you through his career, um the pathways and uh today, Doctor Chong mentioned the academic, clinical fellowship, academic, clinical lectureship and he can give you a bit more insight about being an academic. Um, and if there's any further questions, please, uh, feel free to email us, uh, we'll end the talk there. Thank you so much and, uh hope to see you on uh Thursday.