Clinical Research by Medical Students
Abstract
Medical education is very demanding and students need to show excellent commitment to rise up the ladder to reach positions of clinical research and patient care. The medical curriculum is such that medical students are so busy, ever pressed for time, moving from examinations to examinations. Even in undergraduate learning the demands of studying medicine are extraordinary. While established medical knowledge is learnt these days nationally and internationally medical schools are including a research project as either a requirement under the syllabus curriculum or a highly encouraged option. Many western universities encourage clinical research during the summer vacation especially in the early years of medical schooling as an introduction to research project planning, clinical data gathering, analysis of the data thus gathered and deriving relevant conclusions. In fact the Australian government is now supporting research by medical students with a specific category of scholarship funding from National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) undertaking a combined MBBS/PhD or MD/PhD program.1 Even in the Indian context clinical research questions are addressed by medical undergraduate students in their Community Medicine course curriculum and appropriate projects are carried out.
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