Welcome to the Doctors'

e-Cohort Study

This is the first of our series of regular newsletters designed to keep participants and other stakeholders informed of the progress of the Doctors e-cohort Study.

Why a longitudinal study?

 

Australian and international research, predominantly based on cross-sectional surveys, recognises that doctors and medical students take complex combinations of personal, professional, social and health factors into consideration when deciding where, when, and in what specialty to work: for example concerns about excessive workloads, lack of locums and poor access to professional support for doctors in rural and remote areas have been well publicised. Flexibility, advancement and work/life balance are essential for members of “Generation Y” (those born between 1980 and 1994) making career decisions, with salaries and retirement packages less important than opportunities for career growth. Overseas studies have identified that doctors will consider potential future colleagues, research and teaching opportunities and increased control over working hours as well as geographic location when choosing a specialty in which to practice.

The Doctors’ e-cohort Study will prospectively examine those career-influencing factors considered important by doctors in the Australian health system at different stages in their working lives, and how, if at all, these factors change over five years.


The Study will also consider how doctors' physical and mental health affects their career choices over time, within and outside the medical profession. Reports have stated that over 40% of medical practitioners suffer chronic health problems; one study showed that over 8% of doctors retired due to ill health before they were 60 years old. Other studies indicate that few doctors access independent care appropriately, and many doctors fail to follow current preventive health guidelines.

The Doctors’ e-cohort will also prospectively examine issues faced by International medical graduates (IMGs) as members of the larger Australian medical workforce. IMGs make a significant contribution to the rural and remote medical workforce in particular. However, as a result of their conditions of employment, many IMG have limited opportunities to make major career changes at short notice, and yet are more likely to have specific issues influencing these choices.

The Doctors’ e-cohort Study will complement other medical workforce studies with timely and contemporary information, an iits longitudinal focus will provide more directly relevant and detailed descriptions of how specific issues affect our workforce over time.

References

Recruitment to the Doctors' e-Cohort Study

Our initial strategy focussed on the recruitment of medical students at the University of Queensland, and with the assistance of the Queensland Medical Board, all Queensland medical registrants were invited to join the study. The recruitment process then expanded to invite all Medical Registration Boards and all Colleges of Medicine in Australia, all Deans of Australian Medical Schools as well as a range of other medical organisations, to assist in advertising the Study.

We have received tremendous support for which we are very grateful. Many Boards/Colleges/Organisations have facilitated contact with their members through their journals/newlsletters, web links on their websites, emails and direct mail-outs.

If you have any ideas about how to further promote the study, please email the project manager, Lindy Humphreyes-Reid. In the meantime, we ask you to spread the news by word of mouth. Please encourage your colleagues to join the study.

Participant profile: Dr Frances Daily

        "it is challenging but rewarding which is why I stay!"

Since graduating from Flinders University in 1989 Dr Frances Daily has lead an amazing life. Frances has worked in remote areas of Australia as a member of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. She has also worked in a number of countries including Liberia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and East Timor. Understandably Frances has re-developed a keen interest in tropical medicine, in which she also holds formal qualifications.

Currently Frances is based in Cambodia where she has lived on and off for 8.5. years. She has a Khmer partner who has a small tour business. In her work Frances is dealing with both public health issues and clinical medicine. While much of her efforts are directed at teaching others, promoting infection control and trying to "strengthen the health care system", Frances is also dealing with a range of health mattes including diarrhoea, pneumonia and obstetric problems.  Fortunately Frances also holds a diploma in Obstetrics.

In 2003 she worked on SARS and more recently has been involved in Avian Influenza.  Interestingly, there is also a large number of children who present with congenital cardiac anomalies and sequelae of sub acute bacterial endocarditis.

                          

 

Some of the barriers to her work are Cambodia's poor infrastructure and the abject poverty of the country. Much of the problem stems from the thirty year civil war that resulted in destruction of physical resources and a depletion of intellectual resources. Frances tells us that "it is challenging but rewarding which is why I stay!" She adds that "the locals always have a smile on their face".


If other medical practitioners are interested in her work, Frances can be contacted by email

 

Are you interested in research collaboration with the e-Cohort Study?

We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with external researchers who wish to undertake a sub-study or perform analysis of existing data. The only limiting criterion for external collaborators is that a Principal Investigator from the Doctors' e-Cohort Study must be involved. Please direct initial enquiries to our Research Manager and Biostatistician, Ms Anne Russell.

Protecting your privacy on the e-Cohort Study

As we are stationed at the University of Queensland, all our research activities are governed by strict ethical guidelines. The Doctors' e-Cohort Study has been granted clearance by the University’s Behavioural and Social Science Ethics Review Committee.

Ethical governance pertains to issues such as confidentiality, consent, privacy, data handling and storage. None of your confidential information is disclosed to others. Even when the data is analysed or passed from one analyst to another, it is de-identified first.

Nonetheless, we do acknowledge that there are always risks associated with electronic data storage (just as there are with traditional methods) and accordingly we have secured our website with a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) which is an encrypted protocol for transmitting private documents via the internet.

Should you have any questions or concerns, you are invited to contact The University of Queensland’s Ethics Officer, Mr Michael Tse at: humanethics@research.uq.edu.au

 

The British Medical Association Cohort study

The Doctors’ e-Cohort study is one of a number of other studies following cohorts of medical students and / or doctors in Australia and around the world. 

One such study is the BMA cohort study of 2006 medical graduates.  This study is tracking the careers of young doctors over a 10 year period and collect information to enable the assessment of future trends in the UK medical workforce.  The cohort study complements existing research by allowing data to be collected over a continuous period, thereby addressing the current lack of information on workforce flows. As the data is linked longitudinally, individual careers can be tracked over time enabling the analysis of differential career development.

The BMA has previously followed a cohort of 1995 medical graduates for 10 years.  This study has found that although 3/4 of cohort doctors are currently satisfied with practising medicine, 2/5 consider that the reality of a career in medicine is very different from what they envisaged at graduation in 1995.  Achieving an acceptable work-life balance is a key factor in the morale and motivation of cohort doctors. The proportion of cohort doctors working in general practice continues to increase, with 1/3 of cohort doctors working as general practitioners (GPs) in the past year.  There has been a steady increase in the numbers of cohort doctors choosing to specialise in radiology, anaesthetics and pathology or pursue a career in academic medicine but the numbers planning a career in general medicine or surgery have more than halved since graduation in 1995.

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