Letter

Research participation among clinical oncology trainees in the

Middle East and North Africa

Ahmed Salem, Sameh Hashem, Layth Y.I. Mula-Hussain, Imad Jaradat, Jamal Khader, Abdelatif Almousa

Department of Radiation Oncology, King Hussein Cancer Center, Amman, Jordan

Middle Eastern and North African (MENA)clinical oncology physicians spend 10 years �on average � from the dawn of medical schoolto the conclusion of clinical training. Amidstthis enduring journey, residents and fellowsspare little time for research projects ensuringlow ratio of trainees with peer-reviewed publi-cations at the time of graduation.

Elucidation of ‘‘research virginity’’ amongMENA clinical oncology trainees is two-fold.First, trainees are preoccupied by the stresses,mind-boggling academic demands and over-whelming fund of effort necessary to satisfy pro-gram requirements for graduation. Second,trainees hold firm certitude that the rigorousand stringent review process will often impedepublication of their work. Although an exhaust-ive peer review is undeniably crucial to theadvancement of medical research, it can � attimes � be counter-productive towards the par-ticipation of junior MENA clinical oncologyphysicians in the research field.

So far, rewarding research accomplishmentsduring early stages of training are attainedthrough windows of full-time dedication viaresearch fellowships or clinical fellowships withpre-set research allocation. Disappointingly,such positions are consistently limited by scopeand availability. Moreover, most clinical fellow-ships do not adequately address the issue ofresearch participation. As such, thousands of

MENA clinical oncology graduates are ordinar-ily concluding clinical training with little if anyresearch exposure.

Clearly, involvement of junior MENA physi-cians in research projects is neither imperativenor cardinal to the future of medicine. None-theless, premier participation implies continuedresearch activity throughout the upcomingcareer. Currently, the level of participationrelies mainly upon trainee initiative and enthu-siasm. Encouragement and appraise by profes-sors, staff physicians and program directorsfrequently arrives short from achieving universalparticipation. This holds true in the residencyand fellowship stages.

Tackling the poor level of research participa-tion among clinical oncology trainees is diffi-cult. At one level, it is essential to re-evaluatethe work load and academic pressure duringmedical training in an attempt to establish strat-egies for encouraging fruitful research participa-tion among trainees. Similarly, frameworksadvocating active research participation at anearly stage of clinical oncology training haveto be further reviewed. More importantly,however, MENA medical journals are com-pelled to lay foundation for applauding youngresearchers by allocating journal space and �at times � invited editorials devoted to the pro-motion of active research participation at earlystages of the medical career.

Correspondence to: Ahmed Salem, Department of Radiation Oncology,King Hussein Cancer Center, Amman, Jordan. Email: aasalem@khcc.jo

Journal of

Radiotherapy

in Practice

Journal of Radiotherapy in Practice (2010)

0, 1�2

� Cambridge University Press 2010

doi:10.1017/S1460396910000336

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