When building compartiments between clinical and research practice creates better focus
With Prof. Thushan de Silva
It took Thushan several attempts to obtain a funded Clinical PhD but this did not deter him from following a mentor to undertake a PhD at an MRC centre in the Gambia. This was the perfect hub for a clinician interested in infectious diseases to experience both field work and laboratory research.
This extended period of research in the Gambia during an MRC Clinical Research Training Fellowship and a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellowship provided a fertile terrain to build his research portfolio, but also to understand the culture of undertaking research in a Global South context. This gave him the time to build a strong network of colleagues and collaborators committed to undertake work in the African context.
Researchers often worry about changing research topics at the end of their PhD or Postdoc. Thushan did change his research direction and accepts that it can be difficult to articulate a congruent and powerful narrative about a shift in research direction to the funders. His logic of choice came from feeling more inspired to continue his work on vaccine development instead of remaining in the area of pathogenesis of HIV-2 infection and the molecular epidemiology of HIV-1 and HIV-2 in West Africa.
The role of mentors is something that Thushan talks about several times in our discussion. Taking the time to choose the right mentor is a critical step in early research careers. Through feedback from mentors, Thushan undersood that positioning yourself in an area of research where funding is available and where you are not putting yourself in obvious and direction competition, either with colleagues or already large and well established research teams is probably a wiser and safer option.
Developing a new research direction and building a research team is hugely time consuming. The foresight of Thushan’s head of department when Thushan started his clinical lectureship position was to explore a way of providing more than the usually accepted 50% clinical work, 50% research- academic position. His head of department made the suggestion that in this early stage of his clinical lectureship, giving more time to developing research and accessing funding would help him have a good start to succeed in his role, instead of just expecting a new clinical academic to get on with things and expect them to deliver on all fronts.
Identifying the right balance for compartimentalising research and clinical practice is a crucial step for Clinical academics. It is likely that it will require substantial negotiations in the clinical setting and the academic department.
It may be worth encouraging new clinical academics and clinical PhD students to explore what is working and not working for them. They may not know until they have started. Getting them to become aware of what is going to be manageable in the long term is essential. If a pattern of clinical and academic work has been set but is not working, or is just not manageable, encouraging clinical PGR or clinical academics to not give themselves such a hard time, but go back to the drawing board and explore alternative options for work patterns.
More about Thushan
Thushan is currently working as a Senior Clinical Lecturer at The University of Sheffield. He was heavily involved in SARS-CoV-2 research through the COVID-19 pandemic and was recognised with an MBE in 2021 for services to COVID-19 research.
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/smph/people/clinical-medicine/thushan-de-silva
Listening to our conversation will prompt your thinking:
Are the boundaries between your research and clinical responsibilities working for you, or are you trying to be a superhuman?
Could you negotiate an alternative pattern of work that would allow you to be more focused and effective in both area of research and clinical practice?
How are your clinical and academic environments supporting and valuing your dual career?
What additional research skills could you consider gaining early on in your clinical research life?
“your partners… you need to consider what their needs are and what they want to get out of it. The way I guess we’ve approached doing laboratory science in the Gambia and other place is trying to do as much as possible on site”
