Physicians’ experiences of clinical research: findings from the three Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK 2023 census of consultant physicians

For the past two years, the census survey has included questions about consultants’ participation in clinical research. Read the findings from the 2022 publication.

Clinical research is one of the RCP’s four policy priorities for 2023-2026. Clinical research activity improves patient outcomes as well as staff experience. It is important that all doctors have access to research opportunities and the support of their organisation to undertake research to help improve job satisfaction, alongside driving innovation in healthcare. More details on the methodology can be found here. 

Key findings from 2023 RCP census of consultant physicians

• In 2023, 41% of consultant physician respondents said they undertake research. However, a further 36% were interested in undertaking research. This is similar to the responses from 2022.
• The top three reasons why UK consultant physicians choose to undertake research were: it improves care for patients, makes them a better doctor, and improves their job satisfaction.
• A lack of time in job plans was the main barrier to UK consultant physicians taking part in research.
• When asked what an ideal job plan would look like for them, 46% of respondents said they would prioritise direct clinical care above everything else, but 1 in 4 respondents said they would prioritise research activity above all other supporting professional activities and akin to direct clinical care.

RCP 2023 census of UK consultant physicians

The RCP sent the census survey to all the consultant and SAS physicians that it was able to contact via email between November 2023 and January 2024. In total, 22,253 physicians were contacted, and the below analysis is based on 2,992 consultant physician responses. These respondents represented 31 specialties.

• In 2023, 41% (1,234 of 2,992) of UK consultant physicians reported undertaking any research activity. When breaking this down by gender there was a considerable disparity; 63% (772) of those undertaking research were male, compared to 37% (462) who were female. This is similar to the results from 2022 where multivariate analysis showed that men were 1.6 times more likely to undertake research as a consultant physician compared to women.
• Looking at respondents by specialty and where there were at least 20 respondents, the following specialties reported the highest rate of research being undertaken:
  • Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics (90% of 21 respondents)
  • Medical oncology (88% of 75 respondents)
  • Intensive care medicine (75% of 24 respondents)
  • Clinical genetics (64% of 84 respondents)
  • Haematology (58% of 106 respondents)
  • Stroke medicine (58% of 62 respondents)
  • Neurology (57% of 138 respondents)
  • Infectious diseases and tropical medicine (57% of 79 respondents)
• The specialties where consultants were least likely to undertake research were:
  • Acute internal medicine (9% of 209 respondents)
  • Geriatric medicine (16% of 363 respondents)
  • Rehabilitation medicine (22% of 36 respondents)
  • Palliative medicine (22% of 188 respondents)
  • Clinical neurophysiology (24% of 25 respondents) 
• Of those that didn’t undertake medical research, 36% said they would be interested, similar to 2022.
• The main barrier to participating in research was time in job plans (52%), followed by facing barriers to undertaking research in their organisation (12%), being unsure how to take research proposals forward (11%), and a lack of confidence (10%).
• The top three reasons why consultant physicians undertake research were: they feel they are contributing to their field and improving care for patients, it brings more variety to their job and makes it more enjoyable, and they feel it makes them a better doctor.
• On the types of research that consultant physicians undertake:
  • 47% undertook medical research alongside their NHS role, and additional to their paid contract.
  • 31% had research time within their NHS job plan.
  • 19% undertook research as part of their academic job plan.
  • 4% undertook research funding by a commercial partnership for which they are directly renumerated.
• 24% of respondents had their research time funded by an academic study as part of a grant, for example the UKRI or NIHR.
• In terms of how consultant physicians undertaking research spent their research time, on average they spent:
  • 40% of their time leading
  • 18% co-leading
  • 14% on recruitment
  • 12% on education
  • 11% on interventions as part of the research
  • 9% on signposting. 

• Of those that were employed on a contract with a Higher Education Institution (542 respondents), they spent on average 43% of their time on research, 28% undertaking clinical activity and 13% teaching.
• When looking at how consultant physicians would ideally prioritise their time, 46% of respondents said they would prioritise direct clinical care above all supporting professional activities (SPA) in a perfect job plan, while 28% would prioritise education and training, and 25% would prioritise research activity over other SPA and akin to direct clinical care.
  • Respondents who were most likely to say that they would prioritise research activity over other SPA and akin to direct clinical care worked in the following specialties:
    • Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics (70% of 20 respondents)
    • Medical oncology (68% of 72 respondents)
    • Clinical genetics (45% of 73 respondents)
    • Neurology (43% of 123 respondents)
  • These specialties are largely aligned with the specialties with the highest percentages of consultants undertaking research.
• Over half (51%) of respondents said that shortages or illness amongst research support staff had impacted their trust’s ability to set up studies in a timely manner.
• 33% of respondents were aware of the RCP document, ‘making research everybody’s business’, with 82% saying they found the document useful.

Who are the respondents?

• The findings on research from the 2023 RCP census of UK consultant physicians come from the broader census of which findings on a snapshot of physician’s working lives and health inequalities were published earlier this year.
• The RCP sent the census survey to all the consultant and SAS physicians that it was able to contact via email between November 2023 and January 2024. In total, 22,253 physicians were contacted, with a total of 2,992 consultant physician responses to the section on clinical research activity.