Surgical research elective in the United States: an Australian medical student's experience

Identifying the Geographic Profile of International Visitors to the United States for Neurosurgical Education: A Single Institution's Experience

BACKGROUND

Departments of neurosurgery in the United States have had a long history of hosting international visitors for the advancement of their neurosurgical education. The goal of the present study was to determine the existence of a geographic profile of international visitors for education purposes, both students and graduates, to the United States through the anecdotal experience of 1 department to explore the reach and worth of hosting such opportunities.

METHODS

Administrative records were retrospectively reviewed for international visitors over the preceding 10 years, 2009-2019, were surveyed at 1 institution. Visitors were grouped as either medical students or graduates, visiting for clinical or research purposes. Geographic trends were compared using the Pearson chi-squared test.

RESULTS

We identified 128 visitors from 33 countries during the study period. The most common home countries were Italy (10%), China (9%), and India (7%). The cohort involved 62 (48%) students and 66 (52%) graduates, and 59 (46%) and 69 (54%) visited for clinical and research purposes, respectively. The geographic distribution of student versus graduate visitors was statistically significant by region (P < 0.01). However, the geographic distribution of clinical versus research visitors was not statistically different by region (P = 0.62).

CONCLUSIONS

There appears to be international appeal worldwide to participate in neurosurgical education in the United States. At our institution, every geographic region was represented in our most recent decade of experience. International visitor profiles appear to be associated with particular geographic patterns depending on their status as either a medical student or graduate.

Medical Student Research: An Integrated Mixed-Methods Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

IMPORTANCE

Despite the rapidly declining number of physician-investigators, there is no consistent structure within medical education so far for involving medical students in research.

OBJECTIVE

To conduct an integrated mixed-methods systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies about medical students' participation in research, and to evaluate the evidence in order to guide policy decision-making regarding this issue.

EVIDENCE REVIEW

We followed the PRISMA statement guidelines during the preparation of this review and meta-analysis. We searched various databases as well as the bibliographies of the included studies between March 2012 and September 2013. We identified all relevant quantitative and qualitative studies assessing the effect of medical student participation in research, without restrictions regarding study design or publication date. Prespecified outcome-specific quality criteria were used to judge the admission of each quantitative outcome into the meta-analysis. Initial screening of titles and abstracts resulted in the retrieval of 256 articles for full-text assessment. Eventually, 79 articles were included in our study, including eight qualitative studies. An integrated approach was used to combine quantitative and qualitative studies into a single synthesis. Once all included studies were identified, a data-driven thematic analysis was performed.

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

Medical student participation in research is associated with improved short- and long- term scientific productivity, more informed career choices and improved knowledge about-, interest in- and attitudes towards research. Financial worries, gender, having a higher degree (MSc or PhD) before matriculation and perceived competitiveness of the residency of choice are among the factors that affect the engagement of medical students in research and/or their scientific productivity. Intercalated BSc degrees, mandatory graduation theses and curricular research components may help in standardizing research education during medical school.