Response to letter regarding “The effect of intercalated degrees on student involvement in academic medicine”

Dear Sir

We are grateful for this thoughtful and perceptive response to our original letter describing the effect of intercalated degrees on student involvement in academic medicine (Phillips et al 2014).

The concerns raised in this response with regards to our survey are undoubtedly valid. Indeed, an inference that there is an enduring interest in academic medicine based upon application to the Academic Foundation Programme could perhaps be flawed. Whilst our primary outcome was in fact the pursuit of a career in academic medicine, as opposed to subsequent success in this field, we agree that such information would be both interesting and helpful. This would be a relevant avenue for further, long-term research, and unfortunately was beyond the scope of our small-scale student led study.

We also acknowledge and accept the point that the establishment of a direct causal link between intercalation and involvement in research as a clinician may be inappropriate following our survey. However, our study does demonstrate a significantly positive correlation between completing an intercalated degree and research involvement amongst students.

Whilst university attitude may well be an influencing factor in determining future interest in academia, this would not have confounded our results, given that they were all derived from a single institution. Once again, further research to clarify both of these areas of uncertainty would be most informative.

We thoroughly support the suggestions that other methods of promoting and stimulating interest in academia are crucial in the revival of interest in academic medicine. We maintain, however, that overall our results indicate an important role for intercalated degrees in this process.