Exploring the integration of the biomedical research component in undergraduate medical education

Background: A task force of MEDINE (Thematic Network on Medical Education in Europe) organized a survey of European Medical Schools. Aim: To investigate the link between education and biomedical research in the medical curriculum questioning university staff responsible for the curriculum. Method: The survey was online between 10/2006 and 3/2007. Answers pertained to the situation in the academic year 2005/06. Results: Ninety-one medical schools/faculties in 26 countries participated, but response rates to some questions were lower due to incomplete responses. In undergraduate programs, 3/4 of the schools offer research courses and in 2/3 students can do research themselves. However, in most schools, fewer than 10% students choose this option. In about half the medical schools writing a thesis is a requirement for graduation, although the term "thesis" is interpreted broadly. Color map analysis revealed the link between medical education and biomedical research: about 25% of the medical schools had little emphasis on research in their undergraduate curriculum. Conclusions: We identified the curriculum elements most suitable to improve the link between medical education and research for the initial stage (years 1-3) as literature search techniques, statistics and epidemiology, while for the advanced stage (years 4-6), writing a thesis was most relevant.