Integrated clinical academic training: An exciting new dawn for academic palliative medicine

摘要

Within the last decade, concerns have been expressed about the global state of academic medicine. Academic medicine has been highlighted as an unattractive career path due to a lack of a clear training structure, inflexibility in training, and a shortage of supported and structured posts on completion of training. When looking specifically at the interaction of academic medicine and palliative medicine, further difficulties are apparent. In most countries palliative medicine has developed outside of traditional medical and higher education institutions, restricting the academic development of the speciality. Currently there are limitations to the evidence base of palliative medicine, with the majority of published research studies small, descriptive in nature, and lacking in internationally agreed core-outcome measures for key research priorities. However, as palliative medicine continues to grow, engagement with the academic sector is required to assist in facilitating studies that generate evidence to support practice, to create educators to train a palliative medicine workforce, and to provide direction for the development of the speciality.In order to increase the number of clinical academics, a new integrated clinical academic training program was established in 2007 by the English National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Following the foundation program, the Academic Clinical Fellowship (ACF) training scheme marks the start of a formal clinical academic training program.