Interventions to increase research publications in graduate medical education trainees: a systematic review

INTRODUCTION: Competency-based educational models recommend trainee exposure to research, but the best methods for Graduate Medical Education (GME) programs to accomplish this have not been clarified. The objective of this study was to quantify published interventions to generate resident research and compare effectiveness among those interventions. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A systematic review of English-language articles of studies of GME programs was performed, describing resident research interventions and quantifying the number of publications as an outcome. RESULTS: The search produced 13,688 potentially relevant articles, and included 47 articles in the final synthesis. Publication effectiveness was calculated as publications per year. The top ten programs for publication effectiveness were compared to others for interventions chosen. Interventions were characterized as research director, protected time, research requirement, research mentor, curricula, research assistant, biostatistician, information technology support, research fund, pay-for-performance plans, and celebration of accomplishments. Total number of different interventions was not significantly associated with primary outcome (r = 0.20, p = 0.18). When comparing the top ten programs to the others, appointment of a research director was statistically more prevalent in those programs (70% vs. 30%, p = 0.02), while presence of a defined curriculum was more common (90% vs. 57%, p = 0.052) but not statistically significantly. CONCLUSIONS: Leadership interventions (directors, curricula) are associated with successful GME research efforts.