“Resident Managed Peer-Mentoring Program”: A Novel Way to Engage Medical Students and Radiology Residents in Collaborative Research

Abstract

Engaging medical students and radiology residents in research during clinically focused training in residency can be challenging. We investigated extending a substantial degree of supervised autonomy to qualified residents to engage, mentor, and manage teams of medical students and other residents in research projects, fostering a system of laddered mentoring, referred to as "Resident Managed Peer Mentoring Program." The structure is as follows: a resident with research experience (preceptor) first identifies small-scale hypothesis driven projects which different novice learner-researchers at different levels of research background and training can undertake. The learner and preceptor then outline the learner's deliverables and set deadlines for outcomes, with regular faculty check-ins and oversight. This observational study assessed the outcomes of our "Resident Managed Peer Mentoring Program" beginning November 2019. Primary outcomes were numbers of peer-reviewed publications credited to individual radiology physicians. Secondary outcomes were: numbers of radiology physicians who participated in publication and academic rank-based analysis of publication numbers for attending radiologists before and after the intervention. Number of peer-reviewed PubMed publications increased after our intervention (47.8%, in year-1; 167.4% in year-2). Increases also occurred in the number of radiology physicians who authored publications. The effect was largest for early career physicians. The "Resident managed peer-mentoring program" was a productive method that proved especially beneficial for students, residents, and early career physicians in our clinically focused training program. This approach may be transferable to other programs where an increase in research participation and productivity are valued.