ENT audit and research in the era of trainee collaboratives

Abstract

Large surgical audits and research projects are complex and costly to deliver, but increasingly surgical trainees are delivering these projects within formal collaboratives and research networks. Surgical trainee collaboratives are now recognised as a valuable part of the research infrastructure, with many perceived benefits for both the trainees and the wider surgical speciality. In this article, we describe the activity of ENT trainee research collaboratives within the UK, and summarise how INTEGRATE, the UK National ENT Trainee Research Network, successfully delivered a national audit of epistaxis management. The prospective audit collected high-quality data from 1826 individuals, representing 94% of all cases that met the inclusion criteria at the 113 participating sites over the 30-day audit period. It is hoped that the audit has provided a template for subsequent high-quality and cost-effective national studies, and we discuss the future possibilities for ENT trainee research collaboratives.

How surgical Trainee Research Collaboratives achieve success: a mixed methods study to develop trainee engagement strategies

“…The expectation of trainees for transparency around their involvement in a TRC and recognition of their inputs has been raised by several TRCs5 15 and in an analysis of TRC-led publications 18. Some TRCs have collaborative authorship policies to acknowledge trainee inputs 5 14. Although our study found some support for this model, others preferred ‘headline’ named authors, in part through concerns about publication requirements for the CCT.…”

“…The establishment of TRCs, their structure and conduct of trainee-led studies have been described for several clinical specialties,14 15 16 including some of the strategies developed in this research, for example, a consultant champion 5. Consultant support was also highlighted in a recent study of a trainee-led clinical trial involved with the NIHR API scheme 17.…”

Early phase trials of novel hearing therapeutics: Avenues and opportunities

“…Collaborative conducting multicentre research within clinical training and NHS services (Smith et al, 2018). Our author group is working with INTEGRATE on a trainee led national prospective cohort study of adult patients presenting to the NHS with sudden onset SNHL.…”

The assessment and management of deep neck space infections in adults: A systematic review and qualitative evidence synthesis

“…outcome set is established, a second proposal should be a national collaborative cohort study assessing DNSIs, for example, with the use of a trainee collaborative 101. With data finalised, a consensus study using the Delphi Technique 102 should be used to establish a treatment protocol for DNSIs.4 | CONCLUSIONDNSIs comprise a selection of diseases.…”