Moving beyond unfinished business

With Prof. Alexander Rothman

It was the phrase “I dare you” graffitied on a bridge over the Charles River that changed the course of Alex’s engagement in research. As a trained doctor, Alex had started on an academic foundation programme and was working on a clinical trial research project when things went pear-shaped. The project team he had been involved in collapsed, with the Principal Investigator and other team members leaving the institution when the study appeared to have unexpected negative results. It took several long rounds of re-evaluation of the data to realise that actually the study had been correct and the data were positive. By that time, it was too late, as the team had disintegrated. Alex found himself without a team. 

It took immense determination for Alex to move beyond this negative experience. Whilst he could have chosen to leave the project behind and move on to other things, he felt that the data of this study needed to be published. It felt that publishing the work was morally and ethically the right approach, as they owed it to the patients who had volunteered to be involved. Alex took it upon himself to get the data published. This meant harnessing all his energy and self-beliefs to make this happen. He also had to work in his own time whilst working as a junior doctor.

Alex moved on from this challenging experience by slowly building new research relationships. He eventually identified a collaborative research relationship he was comfortable with and gained an MRC doctoral fellowship that enabled him to move out of clinical work and undertake a 3-year PhD. He made the most of this precious research period without his time taken up by clinical work. At the end of this period, the choice between returning full-time to clinical work or giving research a further go felt like a challenging decision. It was seeing this graffiti “I dare you” written on a brideg that crystallise the decision he needed to make. Could he carry on with research? What was needed for him to have a different experience of research that would allow him to build a rewarding dual clinical and research career?

Eventually, based on some of his PhD work, he got the pharmaceutical company Novartis to be interested in some of his work and he went to work in Boston. His dual clinical and research career stemmed from building a niche at the intersection of patient intervention, device development, pharmacology and clinical studies expertise.

His collaborative stance has meant creating teams that can collectively enhance the quality of clinical studies. Whilst the expectations placed on clinical academics may overburden them, Alex reminds himself that focusing on the metrics of research outputs is only a distraction. He describes that whilst these expectations are difficult, trying to maintain focus on the impact for patient benefit is a better strategy to align your efforts. His approach is to align his values and clinical work, not aim for short-term personal rewards through shortcuts but continuing to focus on patient benefits.

More about Alexander

Prof Alex Rothman is a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellow and Professor of Cardiology at The University of Sheffield. He is also an Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. His focus for research culture aims to benefit both patients and people in the research team.

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/smph/people/clinical-medicine/alex-rothman

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alexander-Rothman

Listening to our conversation will prompt your thinking:

• What would you need to build your resilience and want to keep going if one of your research projects fell apart?

• What would it look like to better align your different research projects with your clinical practice?

• What values are shaping your approach to engaging in research as a clinician?

“I kept myself going largely because I felt It had to be done, and I felt morally and ethically that the patients had invested their time and given themselves to this experiment, and it really needed to be seen through.”